‘Looming tombstone’ student block finally approved

Manchester City Councillors have buried their opposition to a controversial student accommodation block, dubbed a ‘looming tombstone’ during an earlier hearing.

The scheme was finally approved at today’s (July 1) planning committee, after surviving an earlier motion to refuse planning permission.

Labour councillor Jon-Connor Lyons moved a motion to refuse on the grounds of excessive height, loss of residential amenity, lack of support from the University of Manchester for the scheme and the harm and imbalance it would create by adding 850 students to a residential area and the harm that excessive traffic would have on it.

Five councillors voted in favour of his motion, but five voted against, leaving committee chairman, Cllr Basil Curley to cast his deciding vote against the motion to refuse permission.

He said: “For me it’s thinking about total volume of investment and jobs and it is an extremely difficult situation to be in. At the same time you have to balance that against our community. I am struggling but based on where are these students going to go I am going to cast my vote in favour of the development.”

The committee then voted on the original application for planning approval which was in favour by seven votes to three.

Objections had been raised by residents and councillors to the scheme, which is a 55-storey tower near Oxford Road rail station.

Local Labour councillor William Jeavons reiterated his earlier objections to the scheme, saying: “There remains a massive feeling of opposition to this application.”

He argued against the “excessive height” and “severe harm” to local amenities which he said would affect more than 300 windows in surrounding properties, denying many apartments their natural light. He added the issues of noise, crime, waste management and community cohesion to his list of objections.

“This application has created huge anxiety for many years. These communities are threatened by unscrupulous developments like this,” he added.

However, council planning officer, Dave Roscoe, responded: “This application has been with us around four years. I am surprised there are any issues that aren’t addressed in the (planning) report.”

At a previous committee meeting in January this year, councillors voted to defer consideration of the £130m scheme due to the weight of opposition from residents and to organise a site visit.

In January, 14 councillors voted to defer, and one abstained, despite planning officers indicating they were “minded to approve” it.

A site visit was organised ahead of the February planning committee meeting, but the scheme was withdrawn by the applicant.

The skyscraper, in Hulme Street, will offer high-end student accommodation, comprising 853 units, as well as SME incubator space, as proposed by applicant GMS (Parking).

It will overlook Oxford Road Station and will be one of the tallest buildings in the city.

The scheme – part 55-, part 11-storey, part four-storey mixed-use building – will provide 853 student bed spaces.

Four rounds of neighbour notifications took place as part of the process. The first generated objections from the nearby Macintosh Village Management Company supported by 216 individual residents, as well as 20 individual objections.

The second produced 30 individual objections, the third resulted in objections from Macintosh Village Management Company, supported by 425 individual residents, and the fourth notification resulted in objections, again from the management company and one individual objection, plus one letter of support.

Councillors Marcus Johns and William Jeavons objected to the proposal, while Manchester Metropolitan University supports the proposal.

Residents claimed the scheme would result in a large influx of students and potential for an increase in crime rates, while there were also claims that the developer’s estimate of a three-year build programme would, in fact, more likely be six years.

In the January meeting, Cllr Jeavons said the height, design and increase in student numbers would alter the nature of the community, adding that the University of Manchester does not support the proposals and, had even highlighted that its students could not afford to live in the development, which he called a “looming tombstone”.

However, the latest council notes reveal that officers believe the scheme “would help realise regeneration benefits and meet demand for student accommodation in a sustainable location”.

They add: “This investment also comes at a critical time as the city recovers from the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Careful consideration has been given to the impact of the development on the local area. There would inevitably be impacts in terms of the use and the scale of the building on light, noise, air quality, water management or wind conditions. However, none of these impacts would be unusual in a city centre context and mitigation measures are in place to help to address them.”