Plans to revamp Penrith’s Voreda House have been given the green light.
Eden Council wants to transform the building, on Portland Place, into the UK’s first net-zero-carbon retrofit office.
The authority’s planning committee had refused to grant approval for the major upgrade of the building in March, but at today’s committee meeting, the proposals were approved six votes to five.
The building will now be clad in an ashlar Lazonby sandstone which retains the stone character of the conservation area and a green wall will be formed from climbing plants.
The council has raised £856,000 from the Government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme to support the financing of the refurbishment.
The local authority intends for the building to provide an opportunity to “co-locate” with partners, and believes that with the potential for local government reorganisation on the horizon, the creation of a fit-for-purpose building stands to better protect the locally-focused provision of services to residents of Eden and preserve local jobs.
