Student scheme approved on appeal
Isle of Man-based Bumblebee Developments has secured planning consent on appeal for a new student accommodation development on Chapel Street in Salford.
The plans were originally turned down in September 2011 on grounds that there was no need for student accommodation in Salford. Since then a planning inspector has ruled that there is a demonstrable need for purpose-built student accommodation.
Indigo Planning in Manchester advised the developer on the appeal. Bumblebee Developments was also advised by O'Connell East Architects, Lambert Smith Hampton, and Guest Garsden.
Doug Hann, director of Indigo Planning, said: "This is one of the first regeneration projects to come forward on the Chapel Street corridor and will bring £4m of private investment to the area as well as new jobs.
"The plans respect the adjacent Grade 2*-listed St Philips Church, while creating a high quality addition to the Chapel Street street scene in its own right.
"This development, alongside the recent grant of compulsory purchase for large swathes of land along Chapel Street, will be an important piece in the regeneration jigsaw and help make the area a thriving part of Salford again."
The scheme will provide 4,200 sq ft of new retail space at ground level with 93 student beds on upper storeys comprised of four- and five-bed apartments on a site close to the city centre and its universities.
The plans do not ‘respect’ the adjacent church, it is a truly awful design on a prominent site on a main road into Manchester City Centre and next to a wonderful building. Can Manchester and Salford Council’s just put us all out of our misery and flatten everything with a 4 mile radius of Manchester Town Hall and replace it with identikit monotnous boxes – and supermarkets of course. It would save them a fortune in pretending to go through the motions of planning consent.
By Jim
I can’t see much wrong with this other than the use of brick. If anywhere demands a stone facing, it is here. On the issue of planning permission, the Council did its job (if you are minded against this application) refusing the application albeit on entirely spurious and irrelevant grounds – there is clearly demand for student accommodation. It sounds like the committee was influenced by the usual cabal of small minded NIMBY locals on that one and they have their just desserts with the independent planning inspector over turning the Council’s decision.
By Chapel Street