A FRESH plan attempting to build homes on the site of a former nightclub which closed 25 years ago has been backed again by the council.

The former Zig Zag nightclub in St John’s, Worcester, will now be replaced with two shop units, five flats and three terraced houses under redrawn plans by developer Peter Styles.

The building was demolished in 2021 and was expected to be replaced by shops and new apartments but the plans were redrawn late last year.

Planners at Worcester City Council have given the green light to new plans, welcoming a reconfigured design that scrapped the taller building at the back in favour of terraced houses.

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Worcester City Council’s planning committee gave the green light to Mr Styles to build a four-storey apartment block for 12 flats in 2019 but with little else taking place apart from the demolition since then, that idea has now been scrapped in favour of a row of new terrace houses.

The former Cordle’s shopfront would also be kept as part of the work.

A plan to flatten Zig Zag and build 12 new apartments above shop and office space was approved by Worcester City Council’s planning committee way back in October 2016 with the hope that it would bring an end to the eyesore building.

But there was no progress at the club despite a condition in the planning decision saying that work should begin within two years due to a disagreement over section 106 money – funds the developer has to give the council for local infrastructure.

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The city council said yes to a plan for the apartments after coming to a final agreement with the developer Peter Styles in early 2019.

The plan was hit by further delays with demolition halted after Mr Styles was said to have decided to sell the building, but he has now returned with a new application.

The nightclub closed in 1998 and was hit by fire in August 2007 causing more damage to the building.

At the time in 2012, a ‘mystery buyer’ came forward to buy the former Zig Zag club from supermarket Sainsbury’s, which had bought the building alongside the former Smoke Stack pub and Cordles shop as part of the development of its Swanpool Walk store, which opened in 2009.