Plans to knock down two former town centre shops have been put forward by Stafford Borough Council.

The authority bought 10-12 Gaolgate Street last year as part of its wider regeneration plans for Stafford town centre.

The units were attached to the former Co-op Department Store, which has also been bought by the borough council.

That building has now been mostly demolished, with just the historic frontage set to remain.

The land occupied by the former department store and 10-12 Gaolgate Street is earmarked for re-development to create new apartments as part of Stafford Borough Council's town centre development framework.

The council was awarded £14.3m from the Government's Future High Streets Fund in December 2020, which was used to purchase a number of commercial properties.

Earlier this year plans came forward to pull down Stafford's former Wilko store in Broad Street – another acquisition by the council.

Now an application has been submitted to demolish 10-12 Gaolgate Street, and create a "sensitive split to adjacent neighbouring properties".

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The application form stated: "Stafford Borough Council is committed to ensuring that Stafford Town Centre is vibrant and viable now and in the future.

"This commitment is articulated through land purchases supported by central government through FHF (and) demolition of poor outdated infrastructure, with the intention of providing uses and buildings that are able to support the town centre's regeneration now (and) go on to ensure flexibility of the built form to enable adaptability in the future.

"The buildings that were located to side and rear of the application site have already been demolished and cleared.

"The inclusion of the application site (cleared) to wider landholdings will provide uniformity to future development parcel (and) increase the flexibility of future development opportunities.

"Demolition also removes buildings that, in their current form, provide little to the street scene or to the overall viability of the town centre."