The application, submitted by Mr Emdookh of YK Global Solutions Ltd, was approved on 29 July under delegated powers. The decision comes after an earlier plan to create four flats in the upper floors was refused in March this year.
The revised scheme will retain the existing A1/A2 use – allowing for retail or financial/professional services – on the ground floor, while converting the upper levels into a total of three self-contained apartments.
The proposal also includes shopfront alterations, a rear dormer extension and associated external works, all within the Holton Road primary retail frontage in Barry town centre.
Planning documents show the council considered the building’s long history of commercial use, with previous approvals dating back to the 1980s for shopfront changes, signage and equipment such as satellite dishes, reflecting its role as a banking and retail premises over several decades.
In approving the plans, the council attached several conditions. Work must begin within five years, and the development must be carried out in line with approved plans, including the location plan and existing/proposed floor and site layouts.
Biodiversity enhancement measures set out in the submitted “Green Infrastructure and Biodiversity Enhancement Measures” document must be implemented in full before the flats are occupied, with any failed planting replaced within five years.
The council also requires separate foul and surface water drainage, ensuring land drainage run-off does not enter the public sewer, and stipulates that access, circulation and amenity spaces for residents be provided as shown on the plans before the homes are brought into use and then retained.
The site sits within Holton Road’s town and district retail boundary and primary frontage, an area identified in local planning policy as a key shopping street, and within surface water flood zones 2 and 3 on national mapping.
As town centres across Barry continue to evolve, the decision means the prominent former Halifax building will now combine ground-floor commercial space with much-needed town-centre housing above.
