NEW 5-STOREY BLOCK OF FLATS PLAN FOR CITY CENTRE

IT WOULD HAVE SHOPS OR OFFICES BELOW IF APPROVED

A NEW five-storey apartment block is being planned in Coventry city centre.

The scheme has been proposed at a site on Well Street and Bishop Street, next to the student accommodation block The Study Inn.

The mixed-use development would provide around six commercial units on the ground floor - retail or offices - and up to 40 residential units on the upper floors through a combination of one and twobedrooms.

The scale has been reduced from an earlier design which went up to six storeys high and included student accommodation units.

The application states it is now solely for residential purposes.

A rear courtyard would also provide 17 parking spaces from Well Street.

The scheme will provide much-needed residential apartments on a “vacant and under-utilised brownfield site”, applicant Far Gosford Developments said.

“The proposed apartments would be within a highly sustainable location within Coventry city centre and occupiers would have excellent access to a wide range of facilities and services,” a planning statement added.

“Furthermore, at the preapplication meeting for a mixed use development at the site earlier in the year, council officers offered support for residential development on the site and noted that there is a need for residential development in the city centre.

“The proposed development also proposes commercial/office uses at the ground floor, which would contribute towards active frontages along both Well Street and Bishop Street.”

The site location is currently a grassy area after plans in 2007 for a student block fell through.

The area around it is undergoing a big regeneration project, which includes plans for 1,270 student flats and a hotel.

Plans were agreed last year following a controversial deal thrashed out by Coventry City Council chiefs to sell the rights to the land around the Coventry Evening Telegraph.

The council also forgoed its existing rental income on three sites on Chapel Street, Lamb Street and Bishop Street - £623,000 on varying leases.

One of those sites on Bishop Street is currently being redeveloped into a student block, while the old Evening Telegraph building is opening as a boutique hotel, The Telegraph Hotel, in the coming months.

Far Gosford Developments Ltd, who are also the applicants for that scheme, paid the open market value for the developed site - £6.58m - and just £3 in rent per year on 250year leases. However the £6.58m paid in Performance Security Deposits will be given back to the developers to help fund the hotel.

The land for the five-storey mixed-use scheme was not identified as part of that deal.