QUOTES OF THE DAY
DEVELOPER WANTS TO PUT 162 ROOMS INTO COLLEGE’S FORMER CAMPUS
“It’s odd and rather touching to think that people might weep over my passing – strangers I’ve never even met. If I can, I’d like to watch my own funeral from a distance. That would be quite the joke as I looked down and chuckled at everyone making a lot of fuss over me”
Captain Sir Tom Moore, who died on February 2 after testing positive for Covid-19, writing about his funeral in a book he planned to release before his 101st birthday
“The Commonwealth Service is one of the Abbey’s most important annual services, but as it is not possible to gather here, we have seized the chance to take the celebration well beyond these walls. We are so pleased that this rich and vibrant BBC programme with the royal family and the Abbey at its heart will celebrate our global connections at a time when we are all so physically isolated”
The Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle, on a planned television programme to celebrate the Commonwealth, after the annual Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey was cancelled due to the pandemic
“Yes, he’s OK, they’re keeping an eye on him”
The Duke of Cambridge gave an update on the Duke of Edinburgh yesterday after his 99-year-old grandfather spent a sixth night in hospital
NEIGHBOURS concerned by proposals to turn an old college into a ‘student village’ fear the prospect of parties and noise – and say house prices could be affected.
Developers want to create 162 student bedrooms within the main building at the former Nottingham College campus in High Road, Chilwell. But people living nearby say there are already several student developments in the area and spoke about the potential impact they think the latest scheme could have on the area.
Ross Tomlinson, a 73-year-old retired testing commissioning engineer, said: “The people around in this area, there’s quite a number of them not very happy about having that amount of students in the area.
“[We’re] Looking at how and what’s happened around Lenton and Radford where they’ve taken some areas and overrun it. Beeston’s got quite a number of student developments already, and it’s just as if it’s going further out and out and out into the suburbs as well.
“Classing this as a suburb of Beeston. There’s a lot of interest in this area to try and keep this area looking like it does.
“Some of the housing round here is Victorian, Edwardian and it’s just a nice area to live, and we feel that 162 students are coming into here with no idea of what the area is about. They will just be here today, gone tomorrow.
“Britain’s got a housing problem, so they keep telling us on the television. Why don’t they convert it into proper apartments for families?”
Others have welcomed the proposals. One member of staff at a cafe said businesses had been ‘praying’ the site would become student accommodation.
Mr Tomlinson, of College Road, added: “The immediate problem we were worried about at this end was, apart from Beeston High Road looking a bit run down, what’s going to happen to us?
“I can stand at the bottom of my garden and virtually look at it. What’s the behaviour going to be like? What’s the area going to look like? Is anything going to happen to the property prices? There’s quite a big development gone at the back of Bartons Bus garages, which is opposite there.”
Trish Timson-greaves, who lives in a conservation area in Dale Road, also spoke out about the plans. The 63-year-old retired office manager said: “There’s plenty of room on the Highfields site, where Nottingham University is, to build a place for students.
“I think there’s plenty of plenty of places where they can build purpose-built student accommodation. It ought to be close to the campus, all they are doing [with this development] is travelling in and out all the time.”
Her husband Tony Greaves, 66, a retired contracts manager, was concerned about the potential impact on traffic.
He added: “It’s as they come home from the pub, dropping all the litter from the takeaway and noise they will create coming home from the pub because they can’t help themselves.”
He questioned ‘why they now want to put students in a student village into a retirement area.’
Neighbour
Judy Sleath added: “Lenton has been ruined for many people who have moved out because of partying and we have all read about the fines there recently.
“If there were to be either a livein warden or a 24-hour shift system of wardens being in charge then I think the major fears of local residents would be allayed.
“I am satisfied that traffic and parking will not cause nuisance, there will be no exit onto Grove Avenue, which is too narrow for hundreds of cars due to no pavements, it is residents’ parking only and students would not be eligible for a permit. It has already been stated in the planning application. There will be no exit onto Dale Lane and thence to Grove Avenue.”
The site has been sold to developer ALB Group for an undisclosed sum and plans have been submitted to Broxtowe Borough Council. Some buildings are proposed for demolition, with further applications expected to be submitted in the future. ALB managing director Arran Bailey said: “Students are a positive contribution on the economy. As of the study done by Nottingham University, it is proven that students bring a total economic impact of £677m into Nottingham and the surrounding areas every year. “They also create 14,000 jobs within the area and each student brings a total extra economic benefit of £10,933 per-year. “Every shop we have spoken to on High Road in Beeston is really welcoming of the development and one described it to us as a ray of light.
“And by us turning this building into student accommodation this should free up some of the houses in the local area from HMOS to family dwellings benefiting the community as a whole.”
What’s the behaviour going to be like? What’s the area going to look like?
Neighbour Ross Tomlinson
DEVELOPERS behind plans to convert a historic Mansfield mill into a retirement complex have revealed a starting date for their proposals.
Plans for the former Hermitage Mill site were unveiled and approved several years ago, but no progress has been made since.
The five-storey mill, which was built around 1790 by the fourth Duke of Portland, is seen as a significant part of Mansfield’s industrial heritage and is a Grade II listed building. But it has stood derelict for more than a decade.
Developers put forward a plan which was approved in 2016 to build 32 dwellings and apartments on the site, before a second application was approved in 2018 with further care home proposals. No movement has been made since – but this could be set to change.
Hermitage Mill Developments Ltd says progression has been ‘delayed’ but it plans to have signed off all planning conditions and start progressing with the move in July.
A spokesperson for Aspbury Planning, on behalf of the developer, said various factors ‘have impacted upon the demand for and potential viabil- ity of a care scheme’ but its cl ient hopes to ‘make a lawful start on the development by July 4.’
T he spokesperson said this would ‘keep the permission extant’ while it progresses ‘options for a part residential/part care scheme’ in preapplication discussions with Mansfield District Council.
The initial planning application in 2016 envisaged 32 homes and 25 flats, a coffee bar and heritage exhibition space. But the later plan preferred a 50-bed retirement village alongside the 32 homes.
Plans also promise to repair and replace windows, alter brickwork and stonework, and make minor alterations to the lower ground layout.
Most of the original building is intact so it continues to be an important industrial landmark.
It was sold to Clumber Building Supplies in the 1950s, which sold it to Buildbase some years later. It ceased trading in December 2008, and since then the historic building has been left derelict and fenced off.
Since then it has suffered spates of vandalism, which the council previously said had damaged some significant architectural features.
Speaking on the mill now, the authority says it has ‘importance’ to the town and its industrial past.
Martyn Saxton, head of planning and regeneration, said: “The council actively seeks to conserve all historic buildings across the whole district, including Hermitage Mill.”
He said the previous planning grants demonstrated that the council ‘recognised the importance of protecting this listed building.’