''It's been treated as a landmark here for 80 years - we don't want to see it gone'

A plan to turn ‘the grandest ballroom in Greater Manchester’ into a five-bedroom house of multiple occupation (HMO) has been submitted to Salford city council. Its proprietors want to convert the first and second floors of the Grand Palais in Swinton into a residential property. An adjoining shop would also be converted into into a bicycle and bin storage agea.

However, owner Stephen Johnson says the 'massive ballroom' is not closing and will remain operational. The planning application says the development ‘will provide some much-needed town centre affordable residential accommodation in the area while bringing back into use the vacant assembly and leisure areas and a vacant retail shop’.

The venue is still operating as a dance hall as professional ballroom champion Alex Plant appeared there on Friday. A design and access statement submitted by Pentland Design and Management, based in Salford, said the proposal was to convert the first and second floor levels of the section of the dance hall facing Station Road, together with the left-hand stairwell into an HMO.

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“Construction work comprises the erection of internal partitions, infilling door openings, to form five bedrooms with en-suite show facilities together with a communal kitchen/dining room.,” it said. No parking facilities are to be provided with the statement saying there are ‘adequate local parking facilities’.

“The site is in a sustainable transport location, on Station Road, which is on a bus route,” it said. A YouTube video featuring dancers in the ballroom describes it as