Office block in Ely could be turned into 23 flats

An office block close the centre of Ely – that houses local MP Lucy Frazer – could be turned into 23 one and two bedroom flats.

The application for change of use has been submitted to East Cambridgeshire District Council by the owner of Alexander House at the bottom of Forehill.

The office complex – that also once housed grain merchants Wellgrain who collapsed last year with multi million pound debts – comprises two, three-storey office buildings with rear parking.

The application has been submitted by property developer Laragh, which has recently moved to new offices in Over having set up in business 11 years ago at Godmanchester.

The firm says they hope to broadly retain the site layout with the only external alterations likely to be the addition of small areas of peripheral landscaping around the current car park.

Documents filed on behalf of the applicants suggest it will be a return to the past for the site on which the offices are located.

“Historical mapping indicates that the site was developed into its current setting in the mid to late 1990s,” says one report.

“Before this time the property is thought to have been occupied by a number of residential homes.”