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SALFORD STUDENT BLOCK SET TO AVOID OVER £400,000 PLANNING FEES
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Star date: 28th July 2016
MORE PLANING FEES AVOIDED PLUS ECO RATING RIP UP
This morning, Salford Council's planning panel will consider applications, including proposals to avoid almost £430,000 on two new eight storey blocks of 272 student flats on Frederick Road, the ripping up of BREEAM eco conditions on Newbury Place health centre on Bury New Road and the avoidance of all planning fees on a huge, 21 storey high apartment block on Trafford Road…
…All this on top of plans to bulldoze the locally listed Victorian farmhouse at Burgess Farm…
Full details here…
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Following yesterday's article on plans for the trashing by Peel Holdings of the locally listed farmhouse and connected cottages at Burgess Farm, which date back to 1840 (see here), today's planning panel of Salford City Council will also see recommendations for more avoidance of planning fees and the ripping up of BREEAM eco conditions…
First up are plans by Pegasus M6/Vermont Construction Ltd to erect two eight storey high blocks of 272 student flats on Frederick Road, near the Allerton building of Salford University.
The planning officers' report states that "The construction of 272 student dwellings is likely to result in an increased use of the local highway network, of the public realm and of open space in the local area" and that "Planning obligations have therefore been sought to mitigate these impacts…"
According to the Council, the developers should be paying £554,608 – but, as usual, they have submitted a `viability report' which, apparently, has been assessed by the `Council's surveyors', who agreed that the profits just won't be big enough if they had to pay up.
Instead, the developers will be paying just £125,000 – leaving £429,608 to be `clawed back' if the profits prove big enough after construction.
Meanwhile, over on Trafford Road, X1 Developments are proposing a massive block of 191 apartments rising up to 21 storeys high – but will pay nothing to Salford Council, since it is classed as a `low value' area – even though it's right opposite Salford Quays (next to Ordsall Health Centre).
This planning application seems to be replacing an application for the same site which was approved last November and slated by the Salford Star (see previous article – click here).
With all these developers avoiding planning fees, there's one now trying to avoid conditions that were imposed when given building permission originally. Up in Broughton, on Bury New Road, where, originally, there was supposed to be a `village green', the huge Newbury Place health centre has sprung up (once the original community had been kicked out, of course) and is now open for business.
Permission was granted for the scheme back in 2012, subject to the building having a `very good' BREEAM (Building Research Environmental Assessment Methodology) rating.
Now, however, the applicant wants "to remove this condition in its entirety" according to the report going to the planning panel, which has caused some consternation amongst local residents…
"The applicants have outlined that the previous contractor who started development on the site went into liquidation when the project was half built" states the report "Therefore, the applicant cannot obtain early records held by the contractor which are needed to demonstrate the overall sustainability rating...Without this information it will be impossible for a Post Construction Final BREEAM Certificate to be awarded and therefore the requirements of the condition cannot be met."
Councillors are set to approve the BREEAM binning as, "at design stage prior to construction…the scheme could provisionally achieve a 'Very Good' rating with a score of 58.96%..."
The report concludes: "Given that the information included within the technical review, the fact that the size of the development is under the threshold of 5000sqm outlined in policy EN22 and being mindful that there is no policy requirement to meet the BREEAM 'Very Good' level it would be unreasonable to require the development to meet this standard there are no objections to the removal of this condition."
All three applications, as well as the trashing of the Burgess Farm cottages, are expected to be approved this morning by Salford Council's planning panel…
Update:29th July - all of the above applications were passed, except for the Burgess Farm house which was `deferred'
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Bob Clarke wrote
at 23:18:17 on 28 July 2016 |
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| Burgess Farm was deferred |
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