A CGI of the Institute of Technology Rodbourne: A plan to convert the abandoned telephone exchange building in the historic GWR works district into seven flats, which had been previously turned down, has been refused again. Highworth Homes’ proposal to covert the late Victorian building in Firefly Avenue into apartments was refused by members of the council’s planning committee in November 2019. Members thought the need for an external staircase and landing running past bedrooms in the flats, and the lack of car car parking and cycle storage, which is only accessible when the underpass between the works district and Bristol Street is open, were unacceptable.