A WORCESTER man has said the history of a city church set to be turned into student accommodation should be enough to save it.

The plan to build the four-storey student block off Henwick Road in Worcester was approved by the city council’s planning committee in April.

The application by New Venture Housing will see the empty 144-year-old St Clement’s Church Hall demolished to make way for the new student accommodation.

Bertie Balllinger, who ran for a Worcester City Council seat in St John's ward for the Conservative Party, believes the church has enough local history to warrant it being saved.

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Mr Ballinger said: “At the end of April, planning permission was granted for the demolition of the St Clements Church Hall to make way for the contraction of student accommodation.

"While the application was still waiting for approval, I applied to Historic England to have them assess whether the property could be granted listed status.

"Unfortunately, it was not given listed status, due to its lack of architectural interest, and as the historic connections here are of local rather than national interest it failed to meet their criteria.

"The main takeaway from this, however, is that even Historic England agreed that the hall was of local historical interest, and thus should never have been greenlighted planning by Worcester City Council Planning Department.  

"While this has been a defeat, I will continue to try and protect the historic interests of St Johns and Worcester, and champion the conservation of Worcester’s historic buildings and parks”.

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Many residents were opposed to the plans with fears it would spell trouble for elderly neighbours living in nearby sheltered housing.

A spokesperson for Worcester City Council said: “We understand the concerns raised about the proposed loss of the St. Clements Church Hall, but this planning application has now been determined and all representations were properly considered at the time.

“Historic England concluded from their assessment of the building that, whilst it is a good example of its type, it has a very functional layout and form and is not rare or unusual, but is architecturally quite plain.

"As well as not meeting the national criteria for listing a building of this type and date, it was also not considered suitable for inclusion on the City Council’s local list and indeed no formal nomination was received.

“In this case, the redevelopment proposals were found to be in accordance with national and local planning policy and therefore planning permission was granted to replace it with new student accommodation.”