Council slams bid to use stalled student flat plan site as car park

A plan to temporarily use city land as a car park has come under heavy criticism from council officers. The former James House site in Leicester’s Welford Road was earmarked for a huge student accommodation development after a plan to tear down the offices and create new flats in its place were approved by Leicester City Council last year.

Some 517 bed spaces were agreed by the local authority. These would have been divided across two buildings – one for standard rent and one for student rent – which were to be 15-storeys high at their tallest points. Applicant Cheswold Welford Road Ltd later sought to vary the wording of its approved plan to allow it the flexibility to use both buildings for student accommodation should it wish to. That was rejected by planning officers, who said the impacts of such a change could only be thoroughly investigated through a new planning application.

The developer then approached the local authority with a new proposal, this time for the temporary use of the land as a car park for five years while it prepares a new planning application. Cheswold said it still intended to follow through with the flats scheme, but wanted the new permission so it could make the “most efficient use of the site" while discussions are ongoing. The car park application was retroactive, with the site having been brought into use for this purpose in April.

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Now, however, planning officers have rejected the car park plan, levelling strong criticism at the proposal. The car park is of “extremely poor” design and “does not appear to be safe”, they said.

There is “no lighting”, “no management on site” and “no indication of security measures”. Spaces for vehicles “have not been marked out”, they added, and the surface is “rubble left over” from the demolition of the former offices. They further raised the lack of paths for pedestrians in the site as an issue.

The city council also hit out at the lack of electric vehicle charging points and disabled bays on site. Officers said if they were to rate the car park in line with council standards, it would get one star.

They concluded: “The proposed car park, even if approved on a temporary basis, would be more harmful than a vacant site.”