Plans for 421 student beds at the University of the West of England’s Frenchay Campus have been given the go-ahead despite concerns about parking in nearby streets.
South Gloucestershire Council’s strategic sites delivery committee granted permission for a pair of six-storey blocks at the site in Coldharbour Lane, Stoke Gifford.
UWE operates a ‘no car policy’ which means students are not allowed to park vehicles within two miles of the campus as part of their tenancy agreement.
But ward Cllr Ayrden Pocock (Lib Dem, Stoke Park & Cheswick) told the meeting that the community had longstanding concerns that it was not enforced.
He said staff and students parked in nearby streets, taking away spaces from residents, and that the plans would see a further reduction in parking on campus so the situation would only get worse.
Cllr Pocock said this was on top of overflow parking caused by student houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) where there were not enough spaces on driveways for every occupant He said he was not opposed to the development but a long-term parking solution was needed, such as a residents’ parking zone which operated well on the Bristol City Council side of the border in Lockleaze.
Cllr Pocock, also a parish councillor, said: “There is a permit scheme in the area and it works. It seems totally illogical to residents, myself and the parish council why we can’t use this opportunity to have a complete overhaul of how parking management works in the area.”
A planning officer replied that a residents’ parking scheme fell outside of what could be decided in UWE’s planning application but that the idea was subject to ongoing talks between South Gloucestershire Council and the university.
He added that for this specific application, it was not considered that the six-storey blocks would exacerbate the issue as the students would already be on campus with
no need to travel.
Committee member Cllr Mike Bell (Labour, Staple Hill & Mangotsfield) said he could not believe that the plans included just two car parking spaces for disabled students and three for carers out of the 421 bed spaces.
He told the meeting: “I’m not particularly happy about the number of disabled spaces – it’s one in 200 students. It’s certainly not enough. I don’t want disabled students not being able to attend UWE because there is not enough disabled parking available.”
The planning officer, who recommended giving the plans the go-ahead, said the university had ample nearby on-site parking if that became an issue.
Cllr Mike Drew (Lib Dem, Yate North) said he doubted officers’ assertions in their report to the committee that the new on-campus student accommodation would alleviate some reliance on HMOs.
He said: “In terms of the neighbouring residential areas, the reduction of need for HMOs will not have that much impact because I suspect the HMOs closest to the campus will be much more desirable than those much further away.
“In Cheswick and Stoke Park there will not be a reduction in demand, so we need to understand that in our discussions about the transport plans with UWE.”
The committee report said the council’s transport officer deemed the proposals would have no unacceptable impact on the surrounding road network or create more traffic.
It said: “The general concept of providing additional student accommodation on-campus is considered to represent a more sustainable way of operating, when compared to students residing off-campus. This will reduce the number of trips required to allow students to access university buildings.”
The report said the two new blocks would meet high energy efficiency standards It said the council’s landscape officer still had concerns about overshadowing, building height and position, and the external appearance of the blocks.
But it said UWE had justified its design approach and had considered other options to resolve the issues, which the report considered “minor”, but could not address them all without losing positive aspects of
the scheme.
The report said: “On balance, it is considered that the scheme would result in a number of benefits, with the impact of providing a more sustainable form of student accommodation in the district considered to be significant. The benefits of the scheme are considered to outweigh any harm in the overall planning balance.”
UWE planning agent Ed Flood said the development was driven by the university’s aim of offering on-campus accommodation
to all first-year students. He said the ambition was to increase student numbers from the existing 33,000 to 42,000 by 2030 and 48,000 a decade later.
The new buildings will replace the now-demolished Mallard House service building in the south-east corner of the campus, along with some car parking areas – a loss of some 198 spaces.
They comprise the second phase of a wider student accommodation scheme on-site, following the completion of 900 bedrooms at the former Carroll Court site A central public plaza will be created between the two blocks and an amphitheatre area is also proposed.
By Adam Postans, Local Democracy Reporter