UK: Developer Downing has been granted planning permission to build a 555-bed project, in Falmer, near Brighton.
The PBSA scheme, near Brighton & Hove Albion’s AMEX stadium, will provide 555 beds within two six-storey wings, with an interlinking two-storey social hub between the two buildings.
The accommodation will consist of 397 student cluster rooms, 130 self-contained studio apartments, 18 accessible studios and 10 accessible cluster rooms.
The scheme is targeting a BREEAM excellent rating as a minimum, which requires a sustainability score of between 70 and 84 per cent.
Lewes District Council turned down the planning application in October 2022.
The planning officer’s report at the time recommended refusal on the following grounds: “Its substantial height, bulk and unsympathetic design, coupled with its positioning and proximity to the South Downs Nation Park, would appear as an unacceptably [sic] and incongruous feature”. The report also noted “the intensification of development at the stadium” and an increase in recent years of “speculative and poorly designed student residence blocks to the south of the Stadium”.
It added that the design of the proposed development would “create a poor contrast with the stadium building”. A further reason for refusal cited was that the development would affect air quality.
However Downing Students and the owners of the land, Matthew Bennett and Richard Bennett, appealed to the Government’s planning inspectorate, following Lewes District Council’s decision.
The Government planning inspector granted planning permission for the development. A separate decision will be made regarding whether Lewes District Council should pay for Downing Students’ appeal costs.
