Belfast City Council approves demolition of Athletic Stores building in Belfast
Belfast City Council’s town planning committee has given the go-ahead for a landmark Victorian building in the centre of Belfast to be demolished.
The Athletic Stores building will be replaced by a multi-storey apartment complex.
The future of the building had been the subject of a legal row since plans to replace it first emerged in 2009.
A legal bid to stop the Athletic Stores site from being torn down and rebuilt was brought by the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society. It launched a judicial review of the Planning Service’s original decision.
In January 2010, a High Court judge ordered the Planning Service to reconsider its original decision to allow the scheme.
An application was presented to Belfast City Council in June with a recommendation to approve.
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