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Plans to transform brewery into homes set for approval

Backhouse A digital depiction of a four-storey building with people walking around it and greenery. It has a modern look but is red brick and has a large lettering on the building saying Brewery Wharf Backhouse
The site will include houses, flats and affordable homes

Part of a town's former brewery is set to be knocked down to make way for 102 new homes.

Under the proposals, two-bed flats and four-bed homes would be built at the old Wadworth brewery, Northgate Street in Devizes, Wiltshire.

Developer Backhouse's plans are for around and behind the Grade II-listed Wadworth building, which is subject to a separate application.

Wiltshire Council will vote on the development at a meeting on 27 February, with planning officers recommending the application's approval.

After 140 years, the family-run Wadworth and Co brewery moved from the Northgate site in 2023 to a new facility on Folly Road.

Backhouse A digital depiction of what the site would look like from the road, next to the listed section. The Victorian building is shown, with the new bit also being red-brick but the structure being more modern.Backhouse
The developer said there would be 130 car parking spaces.

Of the homes proposed, 37 would be three and four-bed houses, and the rest would be flats.

Eight of the homes would be affordable and there would be 130 car parking spaces.

The height of the buildings would be restricted between two and four storeys, with the site including a new shop and open space.

Air source heat pumps and solar panels are also included in the plans.

Michelle Hyde, Backhouse's development director, said it has taken two years to put the scheme together and that it has been "thoroughly designed to be sensitive to its location in Devizes Conservation Area and surrounding heritage assets".

She added that they have been working with the Canal & River Trust to "address their aspirations and concerns" as well as the developer of the Grade II-listed Wadworth Building.

Google Maps The site from the road as it is now, showing an industrial building that is modern and looks a bit like an industrial estate.Google Maps
The development is for the section of the site beside and behind the Grade II listed building.

Wiltshire Council's planning committee will discuss the application on 27 February.

Planning officers wrote in a report that "the substantial benefits of revitalising a now vacant site that has the potential to become an eyesore through dereliction, outweighs its inability to delivery all the desired/required mitigation".

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