Southwick: Ex-Gentoo Cornhill Centre offices to be transformed into children's nursery and flats

Sunderland City Council’s planning department has approved an application for the Cornhill Centre, off Goschen Street, in Southwick.

The centre had previously been used as Gentoo Group’s Southwick office but in a previous announcement, the housing firm confirmed it would be selling the office site and relocating a short distance away to the Bunnyhill Centre.

A statement published on Gentoo’s website on January 20, 2025, said Gentoo’s new site is due to open in summer, 2025, with the Cornhill Centre in Southwick closing on February 14, 2025, and customers advised to visit Gentoo’s City Hall office in the interim period.

A planning application from Step By Step Properties Ltd, submitted earlier this year (2025), said the proposal for the Cornhill Centre included a nursery on the ground floor, which was classed as a ‘permitted use’ under planning rules and didn’t require planning permission.

However, applicants still sought ‘prior approval’ from the council to convert the building’s two upper floors into 10 apartments, with a mix of one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments proposed.

The planning application said internal works such as “installing partitions and upgrading infrastructure” would “deliver modern living standards” and a “sensitive and sustainable conversion.”

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During a council public consultation exercise on the apartment plans, there was one public objection raising a number of concerns, including overlooking and privacy impacts, “increased activity and noise” and “impact on amenity”.

A council decision report said that suggested mitigation measures for the development could include “increased screening or landscaping.”

After considering the planning application and assessing it against planning policies, Sunderland City Council’s planning department approved it on May 13, 2025.

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Council planners said the development was acceptable in terms of its design and that there were “no undue concerns in respect of transport impacts” and that all habitable rooms would have a “sufficient level of sun and natural daylight into the flats”.

Planning documents said a parking plan was provided “indicating how the site can accommodate an appropriate level of parking” and that there would be “cycle storage and new bin stores”.

It was also noted that “noise mitigation is recommended to achieve acceptable internal noise levels” and that there was a condition in place recommended by the council’s environmental health department to “safeguard the acoustic environment of future occupants of the site.”

The planning application description from Step By Step Properties Ltd only made reference to apartments and a transport statement submitted with the plans said the “change of use of the ground floor from offices to a children’s nursery does not require planning permission”.

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However, the transport statement still provided details of the proposed nursery use, which would “be open to children between the ages of six months and five years”.

The capacity of the nursery was said to be “78 children with 16 members of staff” and it was estimated that around “20 per cent of staff would drive to work”.

The transport statement adds: “The nursery would be open between 0730 and 1800, Monday to Friday.

“It would be closed at weekends, on Bank Holidays and during the last week of December […] a justification for the number of car parking/drop-off/pick-up spaces for the nursery is provided.

“The nursery operator has nurseries at Willington, at Hebburn, at South Shields, at Bishop Auckland, at Durham, at Gateshead, at Newcastle upon Tyne and at Blaydon-on-Tyne, and has significant knowledge regarding drop-off and pick-up times and travel modes.”

For more information on the plan or council decision, visit Sunderland City Council’s planning portal website and search reference: 25/00071/PCM