THE RESTORATION of a former Italian restaurant in Mold back to residential housing will begin if Flintshire County Council approves a traffic management plan for the project.
The Grade II-listed former Savoy Restaurant building on Chester Street occupies what were originally a terraced block of Georgian cottages.
Works were approved last year when the building was sold having not reopened after the Covid pandemic, but construction has not yet begun.
The owners have now submitted plans to manage the flow of construction traffic and material into the site – which has a single narrow access point from Chester Street – signalling that work will soon begin.
Built in the mid-19th century as homes for industrial workers, by the 1980s the bloc, known as Prices Row, had been transformed into the Savoy Italian Restaurant.
The exterior of the homes – listed in 1987 to preserve them as examples of industrial workers housing – has undergone some changes with chimneys being removed.
But the new plans aim to make no significant changes to the outside – except for maintenance and cleaning. Inside the open plan restaurant will be divided back into seven separate homes.
There is no off-street parking associated with the properties, but their proximity to Mold Town Centre and public transport make it a category one site where parking is not considered essential.
Flintshire planning officer James Beattie said the works would help preserve the listed buildings.
“The works identified have been sensitively designed to minimise the required loss of historic fabric, and will repair original features and where necessary replace features that have been lost.
“The proposed use is appropriate to the building and its location as it restores the building to its historic use.”
