The company behind a major Douglas renovation has submitted new plans for the site.

Duke Street Commercial Ltd has already demolished 42-50 Duke Street and has permission to build a six-storey block comprising of shops, office space and 11 flats.

Now the company has submitted a new application (20/00679/B) to replace the proposed office space with a further nine flats, bringing the total to 20.

The overall size and shape of the building will not change if these plans are approved by planners.

In its new application, Duke Street Commercial’s designers, Thomas Hunter Architects, said: ’Our clients asked us to review the feasibility of an underground car park.

’We have added an extended basement area to the existing basement and through the use of a car lift from Villiers Square, created six new car parking spaces to serve the residential units.’

It goes on to state that the companies believe this to be adequate due to the town centre location and that ’creating any spaces at all must be seen as a bonus’.

However, when the planning committee approved the original plans, it said: ’A minimum of one space per apartment is required to be allocated and retained thereafter for that apartment.’

It gave the reason that this was to ’provide adequate off-street parking’.

An appeal to the previous approval was made by Tevir Properties IoM Limited, which owns the adjacent Villiers Square, but this was rejected by Environment, Food and Agriculture Minister Geoffrey Boot.