£52m scheme including student flats ‘offers ‘significant benefits’

Councillors yesterday granted planning consent for the £52m development at the former Gordon Lamb dealership in Summerfield Street, close to Waitrose supermarket.

City planners had originally recommended that the flats should be refused planning permission, on the grounds that, although the scheme could bring “significant benefits” to the area, especially in the current economic climate, the proposed development would be too prominent.

In their original report, the planning officials said the “scale and massing of the development, particularly at the Napier Street and Summerfield Street corner, is simply too great and would result in a substantial and overly prominent built form at this point”.

However, the planners changed their minds on Friday last week about the Manor Mill project, which has been drawn up by East Yorkshire-based Manor Property Group, and said it should instead be given the go-ahead.

This came after the applicant agreed to reduce the height of the flats on the corner of Napier Street and Summerfield Street from eight storeys to seven, in order to allow the block to “read more comfortably in the street scene and with its surrounding context”.

The planners’ revised report, published last Friday, said: “The applicant has revised the scheme by the removal of a full storey of accommodation from the Napier Street block, at its junction with Summerfield Street.

“The accommodation has been reinstated elsewhere within the scheme, without adding mass or altering the form of the development.

“This is considered to be an acceptable solution and removes sufficient mass from this prominent corner to allow the scheme to sit more comfortably within its context.

“It also allows the development to respond more positively to the topography and the hierarchy of streets, with the buildings increasing in height towards the more strategic Ecclesall Road.”

Recommending that council members should grant planning permission at yesterday’s meeting, the planning officers added: “It is now considered that the proposal has resolved all the key outstanding issues, and will bring significant benefits to the site and immediate area.

“It is therefore recommended that members support the proposal, and grant planning permission subject to conditions.”

As part of the agreement, Manor Property Group will give £1m to Sheffield Council to be used to provide affordable housing elsewhere in the city.

The project will also involve creating a new riverside walk on a section of the Porter Brook which is currently closed off.

In all, 175 flats will be built in a development that ranges from five storeys to 10 storeys, sleeping 877 students.

Prior to yesterday’s meeting, 19 letters of objection were sent to Sheffield Council, saying the area is already saturated with students and the real need is for family housing.

Other concerns cited were that the “monolithic” blocks would be “massively disproportionate to the space available” and would “jeopardise the current delicate balance between offices, retail and private dwellings”.

Other objectors said that the height of the planned blocks would “overpower neighbouring buildings”.

Some opponents told the council that the area is already heavily congested with traffic and the flats could exacerbate this, although the planning officials pointed out that there would be no parking on site, so students would be unlikely to try and use their cars.

Manor Property Group said the development will create 130 full-time jobs and 300 more during the construction period.