An application seeking a student accommodation development comprising 290 rooms will be reviewed today by the City Council’s planning committee. The proposed land is at the corner of Communication Row and Bishopsgate Street. This development will be replacing the former Nautical club building.
The Nautical club shut its doors in 2015 and the building is expected to be demolished in the coming weeks as approved during the last meeting. Replacing it, the new structure will be part ten, part fifteen storey ‘L’ shaped building.
A council document published ahead of the meeting says: “Within the city, there are 5,582 beds in the pipeline. 2,358 of these are under construction and 3,024 have planning permission. Using the 2015/16 student population and assuming that every single bed in the pipeline comes forward, the student to bed ratio will become 2.2 (i.e. 2.2 students per bed space). Although not every student will need accommodation, it is still considered that there is scope for more purpose built student accommodation in the City Centre.”
The application will be accepted subject to safeguarding conditions and the completion of an S106 agreement mentioned in the previous meeting held in December last year.
The condition is to secure a financial contribution of £55,000 towards off-site improvements to the Worcester to Birmingham Canal. The payment comes in force because the location falls under High-Value Area’ in the City Councils Community Infrastructure Levy Charging Schedule.