COUNCIL chiefs have agreed to delete a building from a Sheffield conservation area to allow it to be demolished - just months after voting to save it.
Sheffield Council's West and North planning board voted to redraw the boundaries of the Kelham Island Conservation Area to remove the tall, white Clarkson-Osborn building.
The move comes after developers threatened a Judical Review of the authorit
y's earlier decision to redraw the boundaries of the conservation area to include the building.
A meeting in May heard the Clarkson-Osborn building was omitted from the original conservation area as an oversight and could therefore be demolished any time. Councillors swiftly voted to redraw the boundaries in an attempt to throw a protective cordon around the building - but that infuriated its owners, who had been planning to sell the site for development.
But facing the threat of legal action, the council has decided to back down.
Tony Deeming, managing director of Clarkson Osborn International, told the meeting: "Our plans to expand the company would be stopped by the extent of the conservation area. It is a development that would bring 60 new jobs to the city.
"We aim to move to new premises in Smithy Wood to regenerate the business. The floods of last year decimated our business. We need to be able to sell the site to fund our new premises. We did look at trying to refurbish the building we are in but it would have cost around £2.25million to do that."
Coun Martin Lawton said he and other councillors had visited the site.
He said: "The building itself is typical concrete and steel construction. The historic bits within the site have gone and went a long time ago."
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