Swallow Street PBSA saga rolls on after fresh refusal
Claims that a proposed city-centre student development is ‘highly likely’ to be approved on appeal could now be put to the test, after Birmingham’s planning committee rubber stamped a decision to refuse the scheme.
Developer Orion Land warned the authority it could head to the Planning Inspectorate on the back of last month’s thumbs-down for proposals to build a 16-storey building on Swallow Street, planned to provide 263 student bed spaces close to New Street station.
The council’s planning committee had opted to turn down the scheme in November, instructing planning officers to come up with written reasons for refusal relating to the potential harm caused to a number of heritage assets in the area, including the grade one-listed Town Hall and the former General Post Office building.
The application was back before committee for a rubber-stamp on the refusal today.
But in a report to the committee the council’s planning officers repeated their original recommendation to approve the scheme, saying that they were “quite confident” that the public benefits of the proposals would outweigh any harm.
“The officers view is that if we were to reject this today the chance of success at appeal would be low, given the public benefits test, hence our recommendation is to approve,” the meeting was told.
But once again, the committee did not agree, with Cllr Philip Davis leading calls to refuse the scheme on heritage grounds and outlining his concerns over the “incremental impact” of city centre developments on the city’s historic built environment.
“When you go to New York what you see are heritage buildings which are totally enclosed by massive skyscrapers. I’m not saying we’re on the verge of that yet in Birmingham but the absence of a proper framework to manage that is a real concern.
“I appreciate the building is reasonably well designed and its height is not excessive by comparison to some of the skyscrapers we’ve given permission for, but the difficulty is that its impact is significant around that very sensitive area of the Town Hall and the GPO.”
The application was rejected by seven votes to one, with one abstention.
Documents relating to the scheme can be viewed on BCC’s planning portal, using reference: 2025/02559/PA.
