UK: Plans to convert a former police station and magistrates’ court into student and coliving accommodation are being recommended for approval.
The plans from Nixon Homes and Student Roost include 689 student rooms and 352 coliving studios.
The proposal includes the demolition of all existing buildings and clearance of the site and redevelopment to provide a mixed coliving and PBSA scheme in two separate building blocks with associated access, parking and infrastructure. A fifth of the coliving units will be affordable private rented (five per cent of which will be wheelchair accessible) and priority will be given to essential local workers.
A planning officers’report says that the development will deliver a number of substantial economic, social and environmental sustainable benefits. It will also provide residential accommodation likely to be in the price range of young people who can’t obtain a mortgage, as well as purpose built student accommodation.
Recommending approval, the report states: “The proposals have evolved with a significant reduction in height from earlier iterations, such that officers are content that the scale and massing of the proposals respond positively to the context of the site in terms of respecting the character, appearance of the area. Moreover, the proposals are considered to provide a strong urban edge to the Gladstone Road junction.
“Officers consider that the proposals provide a balance between achieving the effective use of a brownfield site within a sustainable location, whilst responding to the character of the area. Importantly the context of the approach to the city centre and the width of this section of arterial road are both factors that warrant the provision of taller buildings at the site. The standard of accommodation has also been improved such that it accords with schemes previously approved by the Council immediately adjacent the site and elsewhere in the City,” it adds.
“The development will deliver a number of substantial economic, social and environmental sustainable benefits through employment during the construction and operational phases of the development, residential accommodation likely to be in the price range of young people who can’t obtain a mortgage, purpose built student accommodation that reduces the need to convert the existing housing stock to HMOs, the provision of 20 per cent affordable housing and the re-use of a brownfield site in a sustainable location that reduces the need for reliance upon car travel. The co-living accommodation also contributes towards the Council’s requirement to provide a 5 Year Housing Land Supply. These substantial benefits weigh heavily in favour of the scheme. The proposals also benefit from a presumption in favour of granting permission for the development,’ the report continues.
