A Crewe vicarage looks set to be converted into two houses so the church can make improvements to the property it keeps and sell off the other.

On Monday 26 June, The Diocese of Chester applied for full planning permission and listed building consent to subdivide the Grade II listed St Barnabas Vicarage, West Street, into two separate dwellings.

One would be retained as the vicarage in association with St Barnabas Church and the other sold off as a family home.

One dwelling would be retained as the vicarage in association with St Barnabas Church and the other sold off as a family home (Cheshire East Planning).

A design and access statement submitted with the application states: "While the property will be split in two, there will be very little alteration to the exterior of the property to accommodate the divide."

St Barnabas Vicarage, on West Street, was built in 1885.

It is currently used as the vicarage connected to St Barnabas Church and has eight bedrooms split over the second and third floor.

The first floor has a kitchen, meeting room, office, living room, cloakroom, pantry, coal store, laundry room and store room.

The planning document outlines three reasons why the church wants to sub-divide the building – including it is expensive to run.

It states: "Being an eight-bedroom property, there is too much space which is currently not being used.

St Barnabas Vicarage, on West Street, was built in 1885 (Google).

"The Diocese are spending large amounts of money on heating the property, even though only a small part of it is in use."

The second reason is because it is not accessible to all members of the congregation because there are no downstairs toilets and no wheelchair access.

"This is unacceptable considering a large number of the congregation are in their elderly years," states the document.

"In order to make the property more accessible, internal and external works would need to be carried out and therefore it is seen as an appropriate time to follow through with the subdivision now."

It adds: "If planning permission and listed building consent is approved, the Diocese of Chester will be able to sell off part of the house and land for a profit, creating more money for them in these harder times."

The plan is for the proposed vicarage to be a four bedroom property, split over two floors. The market dwelling would have three bedrooms, split over three floors.

The last date for submitting comments to Cheshire East Planning is Wednesday 26 July with a target decision date of Monday 21 August (Cheshire East Planning).

"The scheme will create a new vicarage which will be much more accommodating to visitors and residents," states the document, adding no new access is needed to accommodate the extra property as there are currently two entrances into the driveway and there is enough parking.

The last date for submitting comments to Cheshire East Planning is Wednesday 26 July with a target decision date of Monday 21 August.

READ MORE: Crewe man jailed after 'assaulting a constable' in town centre disturbance.

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By Ryan Parker and Belinda Ryan.