Luneside plans reworked for student flats

A planning application has been submitted for a student accommodation scheme on a three-acre site in Lancaster, which has been earmarked for residential development since 2002.

The scheme from Luneside East Ltd is made up of four student accommodation blocks, totalling 419 bedrooms in clusters and studio apartments. The site next to the River Lune includes the St George’s Works Mill, which would be demolished as part of the developments, and the Pump House, which would converted into retail and communal space.

Luneside East Ltd is a joint venture between Northpoint Developments, formerly CTP, and U+I, previously Development Securities.

The joint venture completed remediation works and the partial demolition of buildings on the plot at St George’s Quay in 2013, funded by £4m from the Growing Places Fund.

Planning permission was first granted in 2002 for an “urban village” of 350 homes and offices on the former industrial land, and the application renewed by Luneside East in 2010, with an additional request for the demolition of part of St George’s Mill on the site approved in 2011. The mill was then damaged in a fire in 2012.

Persimmon Homes has planning permission for 175 homes at a neighbouring patch of land.

The student accommodation scheme was designed by Just-H Architects, with CBRE the planner.