Hope for regeneration as £52m plan for student village unveiled

East Yorkshire-based Manor Property Group has lodged plans with Sheffield Council for the 880-apartment Manor Mill complex, and have earmarked a site off busy Ecclesall Road for the huge project.

The company, which has been responsible for a number of other high-profile projects, such as the BBC’s headquarters in Hull, said the block would “cater for the needs of a modern student lifestyle”.

Manor Property already operates similar accommodation blocks in Hull, Leeds, Bradford, Birmingham, Manchester, Salford and Durham.

These include facilities such as cafés and laundries.

A company spokesman said: “There is significant demand in Sheffield for high quality, contemporary and conveniently located student accommodation, particularly in the Ecclesall Road area.

“Currently students are often restricted to traditional residential areas and terraced properties and we know students expect separate en-suite study bedrooms with excellent facilities.

“They also want to live as part of a friendship group alongside other students.

“In Manor Mill individual student bedrooms are clustered together in groups of five, six or seven, with each group sharing a communal dining kitchen and living facility.”

The spokesman added that, if approved, Manor Mill would be built on the corner of Napier Street and Summerfield Street, less than 50 yards away from Ecclesall Road, creating a “secure student village”.

The plans include five blocks ranging for five to 10-storeys high. The banks of the Porter Brook at the site’s boundary will be landscaped to provide recreation areas.

Architect Alan Soper from Shipley-based Robinsons architects, where staff have drawn up the scheme, said: “Manor Mill will create a high quality development with well-designed buildings, courtyards and public areas which all relate to one another.

“It will help create a new place within the city and regenerate the surrounding neighbourhood offering three public cafe bars and restaurants at ground level.

“These will face either towards the remodelled and upgraded Porter Brook with external terraced areas creating a new community asset or onto Summerfield Street and Napier Street.

“In addition, there is a smaller ‘corner café’ under the tower building in the north-east corner of the site facing towards Ecclesall Road.”

Manor Property said the site was ideal for the proposal because it is approximately equidistant between the main campuses of both Sheffield University and Sheffield Hallam University.

The firm said that as well as the ongoing jobs created by the bars and cafés, the project would also provide work for 300 people during the construction phase.

Members of Sheffield Council’s city centre, south and east planning and highways board were today due to consider another application for student accommodation just a few yards from the Manor Property site.

Architects have submitted a blueprint for land where the now demolished Devonshire Arms used to stand fronting Ecclesall Road, opposite the former Wards Brewery.

The application shows a six-storey building which would incorporate two retail units at ground level, as well as 12 “cluster flats” that would provide 59 student bedrooms.

A large number of objections to that scheme have received by council planning officers, many of which refer to the “lack of need” for more student accommodation in the area.

Despite this, members of the committee were advised to approve the plan.