Bid to level Ellesmere Port ex-CWaC offices and bunker approved

The local authority had lodged the plans to its own planning department to level the now-empty Civic Way offices, as well as removing the bunker which had been intended to be used in the event of a major local emergency.

Plans had previously been approved in May 2020, but the three-year permission has since elapsed, hence the new application.

Temporary landscaping would be put in place at the site, in preparation for new development. Knee-high post and rail fencing is proposed around the periphery of the site with the area of the building being levelled and grass seeded.

Council staff relocated from the offices, which were built in the 1960s, to The Portal in Wellington Road.

A report by a planning officer said the current building was "not considered to contribute positively to the surrounding built form, by virtue of its scale and overall design".

Originally, the purpose of the underground bunker – created in 1990 at a cost of £2 million – was to be used as a nuclear bunker. It was later intended to be used an emergency centre in the event of a major incident.

It would have been used by emergency services and heads of the council, capable of accommodating up to 60 people.

The bunker contained command centres, fold-out beds, kitchen facilities, decontamination rooms and an emergency exit tunnel people would have had to crawl through to get back to the surface.

It is understood the centre was tested, once a year, but the seriousness of these trials was slightly undermined when those involved headed back up to ground floor for lunch.

It is also believed the underground facility has not been tested for at least the past 15 years.

The demolition bid was given approval by the local authority, subject to a number of conditions, including that no demolition work would take place between March 1 and August 31 until a nesting bird survey had been carried out and arrangements made if nesting birds are found.