OVER a hundred properties may become part of an extended conservation area in Barking Town Centre. Town hall bosses have agreed to extend one of the borough s conservation areas despite objections that have been raised by the London Thames Gateway Develop

OVER a hundred properties may become part of an extended conservation area in Barking Town Centre.

Town hall bosses have agreed to extend one of the borough's conservation areas despite objections that have been raised by the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation (LTGDC), which has a say in granting planning applications in Barking Town Centre.

The corporation was said to have objected because of alterations made to some shops in the newly drawn boundary of the Abbey and Barking Town Centre Conservation Area.

A new appraisal report has proposed that the area should be expanded from its existing boundaries in East Street, Barking, to "encompass all of the frontage buildings along East Street and Station Parade up to its junction with Cambridge Road and parts of Linton and Ripple Roads."

However, two other agencies, English Heritage and Design for London, supported the full proposed extension.

The extension would include buildings like the Town Hall, Broadway Theatre, the former Woolworths building, and the Barking Arms public house, as conservation.

The Abbey Road Riverside Conservation area, which already houses some of the borough's artists, will be turned into a Cultural Industries Quarter to accommodate local artists, community facilities and housing on the site.

It already accommodates a theatre and community arts space in the redeveloped Malthouse.

The LTGDC and the council are planning to put the Granary back into use to provide community arts space, facilities and housing.