Councillor ‘offended’ by student housing plan miles from universities
ADECISION has been delayed on building new student flats in Bedminster far away from the city’s universities. Developers are applying for planning permission to build a 49-bed block of student flats at the bottom of West Street, knocking down a car workshop and showroom.
The three-storey building would be located more than a 30-minute walk from any of the closest university campuses, and in an area largely home to families. Planning officers at Bristol City Council said there were several bus stops nearby, and students could rely on using the bus.
But amid concerns about the site being too far from any university, a vote on giving planning permission has been delayed.
Councillors voted to defer the decision until just before Christmas, while planning officers take another look at the scheme, during a development control A committee meeting on Wednesday, November 16.
Cllr Richard Eddy, chair of the committee, said: “I’m a bit sceptical about willy-nilly moving it further and further out from the campuses. I found it quite galling that developers, by calling it student accommodation can avoid providing any affordable housing or doing all the sorts of things we would expect.
“Frankly I’m quite offended. Any dwellings would not pay council tax, so we have no income as a city council.
“I’m not a naive idealist, I’m not into gesture politics, and I’m certainly not a starry-eyed idealist – I’m a hardened pragmatist but I genuinely don’t know whether this would be something which officers could reexamine.”
John Cocking, representing the developers, said the flats would benefit the area by meeting demand for student accommodation, increasing footfall to nearby shops, and helping biodiversity by building two new gardens.
The student flats would be built from numbers 155 to 165 on West
Street, by Paragon Developments. Car dealership Paramount Cars, founded in 1976, would be demolished.
The dealership’s owner recently sold the site to the developers and retired.