Arts centre scheme for old Tetley HQ site

A FORMER brewery site looks set to become an 887-space car park with its old headquarters building becoming an arts centre and cafe.

Carlsberg UK has applied for permission to turn the old Tetley brewery into a huge car park.

The existing headquarters building will be a “cultural hub” operated by Project Space Leeds and would include an art gallery and work space for artists and cultural organisations.

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On the ground floor there are plans for a cafe bar/restaurant.

The plans also include a “green space” which will be grassed over and used for outdoor exhibitions and events.

Carlsberg also intends to create a children’s playground area.

The plans will be discussed by members of the city centre plans panel which meets tomorrow.

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A planning officer’s report says the car park plans should be given the go-ahead, concluding: “The site is being visually improved with planting and incorporates a significant area of publicly accessible open space as well as the use of an existing building on site for a use which would be open to the public.

“There would also be significant improvements to the setting of the Grade II listed Salem Chapel through its location adjacent the greenspace area and improved boundary treatment.”

But developers in Leeds see the plans for a car park at the site as a “missed opportunity”.

A consortium had drawn up an alternative blueprint for the site which would have seen the original brewery building converted into a high-tech data centre providing the whole of the city with super-fast broadband.

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The developers said they had raised the cash for an immediate start on the scheme.

Yesterday Peter Connolly, of Yorkshire Design Developments, one of the companies behind the scheme, said the city had missed a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity.

He called the car park plan “great for Carlsberg but terrible for the city”.

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