A FORMER church in Old Colwyn will be converted into a café, gallery and residential space, after an extensive planning process was finally approved.

Plans to convert the vacant St Catherine’s Church, on Abergele Road, were withdrawn by developer Adrian Gaskell last year, at the insistence of the local authority.

But Mr Gaskell’s updated proposal has now been given the green light, with the Grade II listed church to house a “multi-purpose” café and gallery.

The top floors, including the tower, will become a residential unit, with the tower to also see an additional mezzanine and the retention of its “historic” bells.

The café and gallery space will occupy the nave, with the vestry to become a storage area.

The churchyard, monuments and gravestones are to remain untouched, as stipulated by the council, with a public consultation offering no objections.

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However, the consultation did call for consideration to be given to the installation of a wall to protect the church grounds from litter being thrown over.

Surviving internal items of interest like the stained glass windows and murals, which remain unlike much of the inside that was stripped upon the building’s redundancy, will be kept.

The building will be complete with thermostatic solar roof tiles, which will not cover the whole roof.

A heritage impact assessment supporting the proposal stated: “It is considered that the proposals constitute the preserving of the character and appearance of the conservation area, and specifically, St Catherine’s Church.

“A great number of church buildings become redundant and fall out of use every year, and so we trust that we can at least guarantee the sustainable use of this one church.”

St Catherine’s Church was built in the Gothic style in 1837, and has been restored twice (in 1871 and 1891).

During the Second World War, the ringing of the church bell was forbidden as it would have signalled enemy invasion.