Update on plans for student block in 'historic' but 'changing' area of Birmingham

Plans for a student accommodation block in a historic but “changing” Birmingham area have been deferred.

The proposals would see 86 Cliveland Street in the Gun Quarter demolished to make way for the new development, which had been previously recommended for approval.

A council officer’s report said courtyards would provide some outdoor amenity space along with roof gardens.

However, at a planning committee meeting this month, Coun David Barker said more information was needed to make an “informed decision” about whether it was the right location for student accommodation.

“We need to look back at this and get some up to date figures about what is needed with students,” Coun Jane Jones added.

The committee deferred the application to wait for more data on the demand for student accommodation before making a decision.

The report previously stated there was a “demonstrated need” for such accommodation and the proposed development would bring into use a long-vacant brownfield site.

However, it also highlighted that local businesses had raised concerns over the “encroachment of residential uses” into an industrial area.

Birmingham’s Gun Quarter was previously the centre of the world’s gun-manufacturing industry – but the report said the character of the area was changing with “some pace”.

“I have some concerns about how it affects important heritage areas like the Gun Quarter,” Coun Martin Brooks also said during the meeting. “These things are always incremental.”

According to the report, the site of the proposed development falls within the ‘Gun Quarter Growth Zone’ identified in the Central Birmingham Framework 2045, an ambitious strategy that sets out the ways the city could transform over the next two decades.

“The Framework states the northern quarters of Central Birmingham hold great potential as locations for growth in new homes, modern employment space, improved social and community infrastructure, and greener neighbourhoods,” the report said.

It said there continued to be a need to protect viable businesses in the Gun Quarter but balanced with the “delivering of housing growth”.

It said existing businesses should not have “unreasonable restrictions” placed on them as a result of development permitted after they were established.

The report added that the National Planning Policy Framework required new development to be “integrated effectively” with existing businesses.

On why the proposals had been recommended for approval, the report said they have an “architectural approach which would accord with that of this changing area”.

However, the report acknowledged  the development would cause some harm, such as the loss of a non-designated heritage asset.

“Weighing the benefits and harms, I conclude that, on balance, the application should be approved,” it concluded.

The planning application was ultimately deferred at a Birmingham City Council planning committee meeting on Thursday, September 5.

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