THE building once home to the Oldham Chronicle is set to be transformed into a block of 40 flats with space for bars, restaurants and a gym.

An application to add three floors to the building on Union Street and change its use was submitted to Oldham Council back in mid-August.

Formerly an office to the Oldham Chronicle, which was first established in the 1850s, it has been left unused since the newspaper closed down when its owner Hirst, Kidd and Rennie went into administration.

Almost all of around 50 staff were made redundant, according to an article on the BBC.

The Oldham Chronicle returned as a website in 2018, but at an office on Henshaw Street.

In the same year, the building on Union Street was sold at auction for £400,000.

And it is now set for a complete transformation.

Included in the application is a plan to add three floors to the building, making space for 40 flats – 14 of them with one bedroom and 26 of them with two bedrooms.

There is also a plan to build a basement car park with some 30 spaces.

Residents in the planned flats will benefit from a gym, which will also be open to the public.

And the ground floor is to be set aside as a non-residential space for bars, restaurants and retail.

In the application, the applicant expressed a desire to make the Mumps area of the town centre ‘livelier’.

They wrote: “The proposal aims to refurbish and redevelop the existing building with new retail, dining and entertainment units at ground floor.

“The inclusion of residential units above the retail, dining and entertainment units aims to provide a livelier area in this area of the town centre.”

A consultation on the application is open now until mid-October.

The deadline for the council’s decision on the application is towards the end of December.

To view the application, or to contribute to the consultation, go to the planning section of the council’s website.