A  19th Century former schoolhouse in Chester will be turned into flats after plans were given the go ahead.

Cheshire West and Chester Council’s planning committee unanimously backed an application by Grosvenor to convert St Mary’s on Overleigh Road in Handbridge into nine apartments.

The building sits next to the Grade II* listed St Mary Without-the-Walls Church and was previously home to a school and then Overleigh Children’s Day Nursery, but is now empty.

At Tuesday’s meeting there were calls from one resident to bring the building back into use for the community.

The plans had been called in for discussion by ward councillor Razia Daniels. And speaking at the meeting, Cllr Daniels told members it was a ‘significant development in Handbridge’.

She said: “The property in question has been vacant for many years and I know many people would like to see brought back into use. No one wants to see empty buildings decay. I know that there are letters of support for this prominent, disused building to be revitalized.”

She added that some residents would prefer to see the building used for a community facility or medical centre, which she said was ‘much needed’ in the area’.

The planned work includes demolition of modern extensions and ancillary buildings, along with the erection of two storey and part single story extension. The plans state there will will be a mix of one, two and three bedroom flats and an 11-space car park.

Committee member Stuart Bingham told the meeting: “There’s some variation on how long the building’s been vacant, six years or 10 years, so even taking the lower vacancy of six years, I think that’s reasonable to assume that no other operators for any other community use are prepared or have come forward to take this building on.”

He said it was a ‘considerable sized building’ and would ‘no doubt’ come with considerable running costs if it was to be put back into community use.

He added: “I do feel quite strongly that if that was an option, to be brought back into community use, it would probably have been done by now.”

The committee voted unanimously to approve the scheme.