Student flats scheme ruled unacceptable
PLANNERS have refused permission to demolish a former antiques store to make way for student accommodation.
A total of 50 apartments over two blocks were proposed for the site of Leicester Antiques Warehouse, in Welford Road, which closed in October 2019.
A four-storey building would have housed 29 of the studio flats and a three-storey block at the rear of the site would have taken the remaining 21.
There is planning approval for a similar scheme of 43 student homes across the three-storey and four-storey buildings.
However, applicant Rampard Ltd said it had reworked the plans to make it a car-free scheme, freeing up space for the seven extra flats and a shared courtyard space.
By removing the parking spaces, the new scheme has also removed the risks related to vehicles reversing on to the main highway, Rampard Ltd said.
However, the city council’s planning department said the new proposals were unacceptable. Officers said the proposed building would “appear bulky, tall” and would “dominate the Welford Road street scene”.
It would “jar with the neighbouring 1930s semi-detached houses”.
The top floor of the original scheme was angled, reducing its dominance over the street.
In the new design, the top floor is vertical and described as an “intrusion” by officers.
The windows in the top floor have been changed from a “wide and dormer-like appearance, which has a softening effect, to narrow ones with a strong vertical emphasis that will appear hard and make the building appear taller than it otherwise would”, they said.
Officers also raised concerns about the “unsurveyed” alley running down the side of Block A, which plans did not show gated.
The ruling said: “If it were to remain ungated, then members of the public could access the communal area.
“I am concerned that would be an unacceptable security risk, both for residents of this scheme and for the residents of neighbouring properties.”
Bins were proposed to be left in front of the building on collection days.
This would result in “a very poor appearance that will harm the character and appearance of the area”, the officer said.
“They are also likely to either block the access to the undercroft alley or impinge on the landscaped frontage immediately in front of the ground floor flats with no manoeuvring space for the bins to be collected.”
Lack of communal space for the proposed future residents was also highlighted as an issue.
Flats would be “relatively small”, the decision report said, and there is “inadequate internal communal space to provide an alternative socialising area”.