Call to permit alternative uses of empty warehouses

CHANGING the use of warehouses could fill empty industrial buildings, Martel Maides associate director Terry Gardiner has said.

There has been a large rise in the number of such buildings standing idle around the island.

The scale of the problem was revealed during a planning appeal to convert part of an industrial warehouse into retail at Lowlands Industrial Estate.

An Environment Department study followed 28 industrial premises that were being marketed in 2011. Of these, 12 had been available since 2008, 10 since 2009 and six since 2010.

Mr Gardiner was not surprised that some warehouses had stood empty for up to four years.