Plan for flats block is set to be approved
PLANNERS ARE recommending approval for a seven-storey building housing 67 apartments on a prominent city centre site in Hull despite objections that a City of Culture deserves better.
The site, once home to Hull Register Office from 1942 to 2007, is on Trippett Street, overlooking Freetown Way.
According to the agent for JRL Homes, the tiered design is inspired by the city’s maritime history, with vitreous enamelled cladding and square “porthole” windows on all sides. Most of the flats will have their own decks and balconies.
However it has drawn criticism, with one objector saying it is “heavy and unwelcoming” and “a large inward facing development turning its back on the streetscape and conservation area.”
The building with undercroft parking – which would be twice the size of the adjacent Hull College Digital and Green Energy Centre – is in a conservation area and close to the Grade II-listed Master’s House at Hull Charterhouse.
The objector said: “The city of Hull currently holds the eyes of the world, and as such should be seen to inspire, innovate and promote quality. For this reason I urge the council to refuse the application primarily on poor design and lack of quality both in mass, arrangement and material choice.”
However, planners are recommending conditional approval at a meeting next week. They said the flats were “slightly below space standards in the emerging local plan” but “the standard of accommodation is acceptable.”