GIVING the green light to plans for a second office block at Blackburn’s flagship Cathedral Square development will help the town centre become more vibrant, a councillor has claimed.

Cllr Jim Casey heaped praise on the £8million scheme, which was approved by Blackburn with Darwen Council’s planning and highways committee.

He said: “This is a fantastic proposal. The developers are putting their money where their mouth is to the tune of £8m.

“We can see this as a vindication of what we have done in regenerating that area.

“This development will help make the whole town centre more vibrant.”

The multi-million pound development, phase two of the Cathedral Square development, will offer high-quality office space as well as restaurant units, planning manager Gavin Prescott told members.

Senior planning officer Alec Hickey said: “The Cathedral Quarter supplementary planning document requires the redevelopment of the area to create a vibrant and attractive area that acts as a stimulus to the long-term regeneration of the town centre and provides the setting for new offices, housing, hotels, shops and leisure uses.

“In response to this objective the proposals aim to create a distinctive and high-quality development that complements such a sensitive historic setting in line with the achievements of the phase one building, hotel and clergy court developments.”

Developer the Eric Wright Group, which is funding the project, submitted a planning application for the block on the grass next to Railway Road opposite Morrisons store and the Adelphi pub earlier this year.

It will seek potential tenants with a view to completing the building, which will take around 12 months to construct, by 2020.

The new development will offer 30,500 square feet of office space and 5,000 square feet for restaurant, cafe, bar or coffee shop use.

The design will match One Cathedral Square with a glass front looking over the square and a brown stone finished back onto Railway Road.

Mr Hickey added Eric Wright Group had asked for a five-year period for the start of works to enable the developers to secure tenants for phase two given the uncertainness surrounding Brexit and financial implications for businesses.

Ward councillor Zamir Khan added: I’m very excited by this. The design looks beautiful.”

Chairman of the committee, Cllr Dave Smith, said: “The design is really important. If it didn’t mirror the first block, it would look stupid.”