A NEW café has been given the go-ahead, inside a former bank in Winchester city centre.

Permission to change the use of the building in High Street has been granted by planning officers at Winchester City Council.

The city council officers have agreed that applicants Gentian Property Investments Ltd can change the ground floor of 67-68 High Street into the café. It will also change the first floor into offices.

Royal Bank of Scotland left the building in August 2018 when the company announced as part of a major restructure and it has remained vacant ever since,

In documents lodged with the authority, the applicant states the café would sell hot drinks and pre-prepared food as well as some toasted sandwiches.

It is not yet known whether a chain or an independent business will move into the space.

Hampshire Chronicle:

The plan was given the backing by the Economy and Tourism Service at the city council, which said that despite the current vacancy rate of the city high street being 5.4 per cent, comparing to the national average of 10 per cent, to ”survive retail locations need to adapt, transform and find a new focus with new reasons for people to visit”.

In a comment, the service added: “It’s likely that the future high street will have a wider mixed use landscape offering more experiential concepts including competitive socialising and activity based gathering places where traditional retail is a smaller part of a wider range of uses and activities. This proposal for a café (a sector which is in the top 10 growing categories seen on the High Street) and offices fits well with this changing picture.”

It added that it hoped the café should be encouraged to make use of locally sourced produce, reduce their waste and use of plastics and to maximise recycling.

The applicants said that the opening hours would be between 6am and 11pm Monday through to Sunday,