Outline planning approval was originally granted for an “iconic building at the gateway to the town” for much-needed family accommodation of around 120 flats.
Beeston Civic Society says the developer Cassidy Group has ignored this initial approval and submitted an application to accommodate 419 students, an application that was rejected unanimously by Broxtowe’s Planning Committee.
A spokesperson said:
‘The developer has chosen to go to appeal as they seem to believe that it is acceptable to ride rough-shod over the aspirations of the people of Beeston and their elected council.
‘A Planning Inspector has been appointed and objections to the developer’s appeal must be made by 15 February. A site visit will take place week commencing 20th March.
Michael Gove’s BIDEN acronym stands for his belief that new housing needs to be “Beautiful, be served by good Infrastructure, embrace local Democracy, enrich the Environment and enhance Neighbourhoods.” He has vowed to clamp down on “developers of soulless dormitories” and prioritise “beautiful homes and communities” instead. This development fails every one of the Minister for Housing & Communities’ publicly stated criteria.
Student Need Overstated
‘Beeston already has 2,400 students in a purpose-built development at Broadgate Park at the eastern end of the town and is described as ‘one of the largest student villages in Europe’.
‘Another 162-bed student accommodation is proposed at the western edge of Beeston in the old Central College, a development approved against local objections, plus an 84-bed conversion of Broadgate House, along with Dagfa House and several other smaller developments in the town and all this as student numbers are falling as government cuts back on overseas student admissions.
‘Developer Cassidy has another site on Arkwright Street Nottingham alongside the tram running up to the station, which has lain undeveloped for several years. Is this what we are condemned to in Beeston: a derelict site to blight the “gateway” to our town?
‘In 2018 StuRents, the UK’s largest student accommodation search platform says that Nottingham has 9,973 student bedrooms with planning permission or in construction, a number second only to London’s 15,000. In 2019 it was estimated that 1 in every 14 properties in the City of Nottingham was a student home, the second highest proportion of student housing in the country.
‘Justification for the development of new student accommodation based on growth in student numbers is not valid as revealed in the ICENI Report (February 2020), commissioned by The Greater Nottingham Planning Partnership, including Broxtowe Borough Council, which states that a “rapid growth” in student numbers is not projected by the University of Nottingham.’
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