Student flats shrink to fit
A block of student flats is set to be built in the latest part of Preston's 'student village' - after developers shrunk its size to stop it blocking a city landmark.
Architects designing the 183-bed block planned for a former car rental site on Fylde Road, close to the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) campus, lowered the building to six storeys after people living nearby said they feared it would block their view of St Walburge's Church.
Andrew Kirkham, of architects MCK Partnership, said developers Allied Property Services had been working with planners at Preston Council to alter the scheme in a bid to get the go-ahead to start building.
The plans have been recommended for approval by the council's planning officers and will be debated by the planning committee on Monday.
Mr Kirkham said: "There were various concerns about whether the development would block the view of St Walburge's, so we reduced the scale and height of it so that is no longer a problem."
He said there had only been two complaints about the scheme, both from residents on nearby Tuson Drive, but said no concerns had been raised about the further growth of the university's student village.
In its response to the plans, UCLan said it believed there was "continuing demand for well-managed accomodation of this quality."
Mr Kirkham said: "It is generally accepted that anything from the university down to the railway line on Fylde Road is university quarter and people prefer that the campus is kept within a defined area.
"If student accommodation goes beyond that area then I think, quite rightly, there are concerns about over-development.
"People can generally see the benefits the university brings economically to Preston and its growth can only be a good thing."
The proposed development is next door to a derelict part of the Jubilee Trading Estate where planners gave the green like to a 246-room student development, despite 140 objections from local people fearing an "increase in existing tension" between locals and students.
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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