Nottingham to rule on pair of PBSA proposals

While a four-storey 137-bed plan for Castle Boulevard is tipped for approval, officers recommend refusal for a 1,250-bed scheme across two towers, one of which would become the city’s tallest building.

Nottingham City Council’s planning committee meets on Wednesday 17 September to mull the proposals.

Code’s towering ambition

The applicant for the larger scheme, at 51 Glasshouse Street and 1 Cairns Street – next to the Victoria shopping centre – is Code Students. Both the city’s universities have lodged objections, making the case that the scheme – potentially the city’s largest PBSA development at 1,252 studios – runs counter to demand in the market.

The universities contend that all data shows cluster living is what students want, with other studio-based developments showing high vacancy rates. Both student unions are also oppose to Code’s project.

Two blocks of purpose-built student accommodation are put forward, of 19 and 27 storeys above a plinth varying between two and three storeys across the sloping site.

Amenities including gym, cinema, common rooms, and a raised external amenity deck atop the podium are included, with ground floor commercial space and public realm improvements and landscaping.

A deck will sit above the podium for students’ use. Credit: planning documents

Code, which has developed schemes in Coventry, Leicester and Sheffield, is working with a project team including Freeths, Staniforth Architects, AD Infrastructure, and Redmore Environmental.

Code’s proposed site lies to the east of Victoria Shopping Centre within Nottingham city centre. The site has been vacant since 2021, and previously held a four-storey office building used by the children’s charity Base 51

As set out in a report by NCC’s planning director, in 2014 the site formed part of a larger area which was granted planning permission for the expansion of the shopping centre, which was never implemented and has now lapsed.

In planning terms, the site is within a designated ‘primary shopping area’ and is allocated in the Local Plan as part of a development site (SR52) – which could include retail, leisure, offices, financial & professional services, food & drink, or a public transport facility – incorporating high quality building design and public realm.

The Nottingham City Centre Urban Design Guide of May 2009 and the Eastside supplementary planning document from 2023 both identify the site as a potential location for taller buildings.

Seven grounds are set out for refusing the scheme:

• Inadequate evidence of market need for PBSA at this site
• Lack of regard for local context and creating an attractive environment
• Failing to conserve or preserve the setting of several heritage assets
• Failing to make a positive contribution to public realm
• Questions over access
• Failing to create a healthy environment for occupiers
• Failing to demonstrate how the scheme would avoid prejudicing future redevelopment of allocated development site SR52, a council priority area within which the site sits.

Nottingham Civic Society is an objector, while Victoria Centre owner Global Mutual and asset manager Pradera Lateral both raise concerns – including an apparent reliance on their car park – although stress they are not opposed to the site’s redevelopment.

Within the council’s consultees, both the conservation officer and highways officer object.

Castle Boulevard cluster bid

Seemingly more straightforward is a proposal for the redevelopment of the Dominion House site on Castle Boulevard, to create a four-storey student living scheme of 137 bedspaces – crucially, mostly cluster flats.

The site is west of the city centre and sandwiched between Castle Boulevard to the south and Fishpond Drive to the north, and is made up of a collection of redbrick buildings, and half of a surface car park.

A historic frontage will be retained. Credit: planning documents

The three commercial buildings on the site were most recently occupied by Zoo Interiors, now relocated. As the committee report sets out, this section of Castle Boulevard is mixed-use with commercial properties immediately east and west, with a mix of student accommodation blocks to the south west.

The scheme comprises the retention of the existing gabled façade fronting Castle Boulevard, retention of an existing two storey HMO and the construction of PBSA. More than 100 objections have been lodged.

Approval is recommended, subject to a Section 106 agreement, of which the largest elements are a £289,000 contribution for offsite affordable homes, and £175,000 for offsite public open space.

The applicant is Castle Park View, with the scheme designed by Franklin Ellis Architects.

The Castle Boulevard documents can be viewed with reference 25/00065/PFUL3. The Code scheme’s reference is 23/02062/PFUL3.