Plans unveiled for apartments on the site of Chorlton Irish Club - but the club itself will remain

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Plans for an apartment block on the site of the Chorlton Irish Club have moved one step closer.

A planning application has been made by the Southway Housing Trust to build 29 affordable apartments, with parking and bike storage, which will all be sold under shared ownership.

However, the club building itself will be untouched and there are now hopes the proceeds from the sale could be used to allow it to re-open.

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The historic building on High Lane was put up for sale last year following years of financial woes and was marketed as as an 'outstanding platform for redevelopment'.

Members feared the sale listing could be the end of the club, which was founded in the 1950s and has hosted famous names like Peter Kay and John Bishop in the past.

An independent group Friends of Chorlton Irish, made up of Irish and Irish-descendent local residents, was formed which began campaigning for the club, which they had listed as an asset of community value (ACV), to be saved.

It was announced last February that an agreement had been reached between the Trustees of the Irish Association Social Club (IASC) and Southway over its future.

The housing trust purchased only part of the car park, not the entire site.

And documents submitted in support of their planning application, made public last week, confirm that "the Irish Club itself is free to continue to operate and remains listed as an asset of community value."

It currently remains closed but a spokesman for the trustees said: “We are still in the process of working through the debts associated with the Irish Association Social Club and ensuring each valid debt is