A DECISION on whether a building on the curtilage of a listed building can be demolished is expected to be made this month.

North Yorkshire County Council have submitted the plans to demolish the East Block, which is part of the County Hall complex in Northallerton.

Solstace Heritage has submitted a heritage statement on the council's behalf.

The proposed development seeks to demolish the three-storey East Block of the County Hall complex.

While a later addition to the campus of buildings within the overall property boundary, East Block has been considered at pre-application stage to be curtilage-listed, and therefore its demolition will require listed building consent.

East Block comprises a three-storey, purpose-built office block in a style and use of materials broadly typical of the 1970s. The ground floor level is in red brick with concrete columns, and the upper floors are gantried out over the ground-floor wall lines with large panels of textured concrete dividing the fenestration. The southern end of the building includes a number of pre-fabricated and temporary single-storey additions, alongside a single-storey, brick-built extension added in the 1980s . The initial development of the main Brierley Building of County Hall can be traced from its opening in 1906 through the gradual addition of the long axial wings surrounding the central council chamber block in the 1920s and 1930s.

The first ‘modern’ additions to the campus comprise the first phase of the larger southern block in the 1960s, before its extension to close to its modern form in the 1970s.

As a building deemed to be curtilage listed, this statement of significance and the assessment of impact which follows relates to the contribution which East Block makes to the ‘special architectural and historic interest’ of the core listed building—the Brierley Building.

The Brierley Building has a very high level of significance reflected in its Grade II* listing and East Block has a minor negative impact on the setting.

The overall impact of East Block's demolition is considered to be a minor positive.