FOUR short-term holiday lets have been approved for above a city centre craft ale bar.

Nick Heap has gained planning approval to remodel the upper three floors of 1-2 Bridge Street and create the holiday accommodation above the Tank & Paddle, which would remain.

The former occupiers left more than a year ago and the ‘poor’ nature of the now empty office accommodation would be unsuitable to re-let. It’s Grade 2 listed status meant renovations would be complex.

The application to City of York Council said converting the offices into holiday lets would meet a demand for such accommodation. It added converting them into residential flats would be hard due to storage facilities being in the basement.

City of York planning staff say that during the approval process, plans were “substantially amended” to address the Conservation concerns of the building dating to 1815-20, which occupies a prominent site adjacent to Ouse Bridge in the Central Historic Core Conservation Area.

Recommending approval, the planners concluded the scheme would “give rise to less than substantial harm to the significance of the Listed Building by virtue of their impact upon the internal layout.”

They added: “The harm would be balanced by the bringing back into use of the upper floors of the building with an active residential type use.”