Fresh bid seeks denser housing on former Register Office site
A new planning bid has been submitted for the site of the former Plymouth Register Office on Lockyer Street, proposing a nine-storey block containing 108 flats alongside commercial space and three townhouses. The scheme is a fresh attempt to redevelop a council-owned site where a previous application was refused earlier this year.
The redundant Register Office building was sold by Plymouth City Council in 2024. The site is identified in the local plan for a mixed-use development that envisaged a hotel and around 52 homes, but the most recent permission-seeking application, refused in May, proposed 56 homes with commercial units and undercroft parking and was rejected by the council.
The May refusal cited concerns over design and inadequate living conditions caused by a lack of sunlight for future residents. Planning officers also noted the earlier proposals failed to deliver any affordable housing and did not meet the identified local need for smaller flats suitable for younger and older people.
"The applicant has 'worked proactively' to address the previous refusal reasons and has refined the scheme accordingly," planning documents say.
In answering the council’s objections, the new proposals increase the scale of the development by two storeys compared with the refused scheme. The applicants say additional storeys were introduced to make the scheme viable and to meet the council’s expectation of a more intense development on the site now that a hotel is not proposed.
- Previous proposal (May): 56 homes, commercial units, undercroft parking — refused.
- Current proposal: 108 flats in a nine-storey block, ground-floor commercial space, and three adjacent townhouses.
- Site history: Lockyer Street Register Office opened April 1982, disused since 2020; sold at auction in 2024.
| Item | May application | New application |
|---|---|---|
| Number of homes | 56 | 108 |
| Storeys | (Lower) | Nine |
| Other uses | Commercial units, undercroft parking | Ground-floor commercial, basement and lower ground parking, 3 townhouses |
Planning statements submitted with the new scheme make clear the applicant intends to engage with council officers and has sought pre-application advice. The documents say the design team has sought to take on board the reasons for refusal and to refine the scheme to address issues including daylight and deliverability.
The proposals would place car parking within a basement and lower ground floor and retain active uses at street level with commercial space fronting Lockyer Street. The application papers also explain that, while the scheme departs from the local plan’s mixed-use housing-and-hotel allocation, the acute demand for new homes in the city provides a "clear and robust" rationale for the change.
Local residents and businesses around the Lockyer Street and Windsor Villas area will be watching the plans closely. The sale and redevelopment of the former Register Office has been a matter of public interest since the building fell out of use in 2020, when registry services moved to Derriford Business Park. Any taller, denser development will revive debate about design, daylight, housing mix and the provision of affordable homes in central Plymouth.
At this stage the scheme is at the pre-application stage and formal planning permission has not been sought. The council’s previous refusal demonstrates the authority’s willingness to refuse schemes it considers will deliver poor-quality living conditions or fail to meet local housing needs. How officers and elected members weigh up the applicant’s revisions, viability arguments and the city’s housing pressures will determine whether the new design proceeds to a full application and, ultimately, whether it gains consent.
For a city that has seen several contentious central-site redevelopments in recent years, the Lockyer Street proposals will test Plymouth’s priorities between density and design, and between delivering new homes quickly and ensuring they meet the needs of diverse local households.
