A FORMER community building could be replaced with a three-storey block of flats under plans submitted to Halton Council this week.

The Bechers Centre in Hough Green, which most recently housed a small church, would be demolished under the proposals put forward by Liverpool-based company SEP Land and Development.

In its place, the company has applied for permission to build a block of 37 flats for people aged over 55 which it claimed would “meet a specialist housing need in the borough of Halton”.

As well as replacing the Bechers Centre, the new building and its car park would extend over an area that currently forms part of the surrounding park, although the neighbouring basketball court would not be affected.

In its application, SEP acknowledges that Halton Council’s proposed Local Plan designates the Bechers Centre as a community facility and the surrounding land as green space.

But SEP went on to say that allowing it to build the proposed flats would reduce the need for green belt land to be released for houses.

The company added that it had entered into a contract with the owners of the Bechers Centre to redevelop the site as the building “no longer functions as a community facility”.

The application said: “There are other community facilities within an acceptable distance of the site such that the loss of this facility would not be detrimental.”

The proposals include a mix of one- and two-bedroom flats which have “the potential to meet the housing needs of people aged 55 and over who may be looking to downsize”.

Members of the public have until March 4 to comment on the plans, and the council aims to make a decision on the application by May 7.