Going up ... Preston's latest skyscraper to add another floor

The 15-storey 176-apartment Bhailok Court complex, close to the city’s bus station, was only given approval less than 15 months ago.

Now the company behind the landmark skyscraper has gone back to the local authority with reconfigured plans to turn it into a 16-floor development with 200 flats.

The proposal will be debated by Preston’s planning committee next week. And council officers are recommending that members give it the green light, subject to a raft of conditions.

A report to the committee says the original proposal for a building ranging from six to 15 floors had been improved by slightly reducing the height of each floor, meaning the new seven to 16 storey complex will still be the same overall height. Changes have also been made to the materials being used.

The skyscraper, which is close to the 14-floor Unicentre and the 15-floor Guild Tower, is to be built on the site of the former Employment Exchange which had been empty for at least 12 years before being demolished in 2019.

The initial plans for Bhailok Court sparked objections because of it was not considered to be of an “appropriate design or scale for the area.”

There was also criticism that it did not contain any affordable accommodation.

Developers The Heaton Group, who are redeveloping two other high-rise apartment blocks in the area of the bus station, successfully argued it would not have been financially viable to include low cost flats.

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