News / Housing
Student hall BRI plans rejected by council
Plans to turn a former Bristol Royal Infirmary building into student accommodation have been rejected by local councillors.
Bristol accommodation firm Unite acquired the site on Upper Maudlin Street earlier in the year and had hoped to refurbish it and build a huge new complex behind.
Their initial thought had been to build a 10-13 storey complex, but this was later revised upwards. The final draft proposal was for one tower to be 20-storeys at its highest point.
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Unite’s proposals would have made the site Bristol’s most populous student accommodation block, with 700 students likely to have lived there during term-time. A new medical school, complete with lecture theatres and clinical facilities had even been mocked up in the drafts.
But opposition to Unite’s plans has been widespread, with local residents and businesses critical of the proposal. St James Priory, as well as conservative and heritage groups in the area, voiced opposition to the plans also.
There was some support for Unite’s proposal from council officers, but Green Party councillor Martin Fodor who chaired the final planning meeting said he hoped new ideas for the site would now be forthcoming.
Fodor, a Redland Ward councillor, suggested that concerns over Unite’s plans were regarding the “scale of the building” and “proximity to a recovery unit.” Fodor went on to note the “public interest and concern” triggered by Unite’s proposal.
He added: “It’s positioned very close to the city centre and I’m sure there won’t be any shortage of people looking at the site for development…we would like to see something less intrusive”.
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