Council rejects plans for new student accommodation in Leamington

Leamington Town Council has rejected plans to build new accommodation for 200 students; however, Warwick District Council has accepted proposals for new Kenilworth housing.

The proposed student accommodation in Leamington would have consisted of approximately 198 bedrooms and 42 car parking spaces. These dwellings would have been a mixture of apartments, studio apartments, and penthouses running alongside the Grand Union Canal.

Kristie Naimo, Labour councillor for the Brunswick ward, spoke against the proposals. She said: “I do not believe that the so-called ‘regeneration benefits’ outweigh the overall negative impacts of yet another student block in the South Leamington area.”

During a public consultation earlier this year, the plans received overwhelming support, with over 130 letters being submitted in favour of constructing the new flats.

Kelsey’s, a local student bar, wrote a letter supporting the plans: “Student custom is a very important part of the local economy. The addition of around 200 new students would provide a great boost to my and other local businesses.”

“It is also an opportunity for the students to come out of family homes into purpose-built accommodation.”

“This development is what is needed to breathe life into this forgotten street.”

Nevertheless, approximately 30 letters were received in objection to the proposals, including one from Leamington Town Council.

The concentration of these Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMOs) within a 100 metre radius is one of the reasons concern was raised over the proposals.

In a statement released on the council’s website, the planning committee said the plan “does not provide an adequate management plan, is of poor design, and will have a detrimental impact on the character of the canal side setting”.

The development would have contained a central amenity hub including a fitness suite. It would have been controlled and managed round the clock for security

It would have been built on 19-21 Wise Street, a site currently occupied by a scrap metal yard. The plans sought to demolish the scrap yard and its office buildings, as well as the adjacent Simlick Floors.

A leaflet distributed before the public consultation said: “This is an opportunity to remove a noisy and polluting trade from this area of Leamington Spa and provide a well-managed, self-contained student residential development.”

Following the rejection of new student flats in Leamington Spa, a raft of proposals to build student housing in Kenilworth have been accepted by Warwick District Council, yet a decision is still to be made as to whether the plans shall go ahead.

Developers Cobalt Estates received permission from Warwick District Council to build a five-storey building for over a hundred students in December 2016.

However, not a single district councillor representing Kenilworth ward supported the proposals.

Despite this lack of support, and following talks with the University of Warwick, developers wanted to double the number of flats.

Kenilworth Town Council objected to the proposals. Planning chairman Councillor John Cooke described the plans as “greedy”, whilst Councillor George Illingworth disagreed with the description of the proposed changes as ‘minor’.

He said: “This is the final straw. We can no longer accept it.”

But Warwick District Council’s planning committee have approved the changes. They said in a report: “It is not considered that the proposed amendment to add 14 further student bedrooms to the development would now create a harmful over-concentration of student accommodation.”

However, planning permission will be refused if the parties do not reach a settlement by 6 February.