The building on Avenham Place has not been used for five years

A plan to turn a disused Hindu Temple in the centre of the city is set to be refused.

Councillors have been asked to turn down proposals by Harrison Ince Architects to convert the former temple on Avenham Place into nine flats and create three new terraced houses.

The Victorian building which used to house the temple has sat abandoned for five years.

Council officers say the “proposed new dwellings would by reason of their excessive footprint, massing, scale, height, hard landscaping and inappropriate design and enclosure, appear incongruous and wholly at odds with the historic and domestic character of the terraced streets that characterise the conservation area in which the site is situated.”

The streets around Avenham Place, where the former temple – and before that a Jewish synagogue – sits are all 19th century terraced houses.

The application will go before the city council’s planning committee on Monday 2 December from 10am at the Town Hall.

Image credit to Tony Worrall