Student living block approved for central Brighton

10:10am Thursday 13th December 2012 in News

A computer generated image of the development approved for London Road, Brighton A computer generated image of the development approved for London Road, Brighton

More than 350 students will be heading to London Road after plans for a new accommodation block were agreed.

The former Co-op building will be converted into the new hall of residence, with a shop on the ground floor, but will retain its iconic 1930s facade.

The store has been empty since 2007 and previous applications had been knocked back for being too big.

But at the city’s planning committee meeting yesterday (December 12) the plans were approved, despite an impassioned plea against the move by a London Terrace resident.

Developers Fresh Student Living are partners on the scheme with the University of Sussex, which will allocate students to the building.

Developers have said the accommodation would mainly be aimed at mature students, but not exclusively.

The council is insisting on the operators submitting a management plan for how the building is run.

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Comments(21)

s&k says...
10:18am Thu 13 Dec 12

Tragic waste of a good building.

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banargustrolls says...
10:36am Thu 13 Dec 12

There goes the already slum-like neighbourhood..

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heartthrob says...
10:55am Thu 13 Dec 12

A fantastic development. Great that so much is being invested in the area and that the history is being preserved.

Hopefully the development will provide curtains though and restrict nasties up at the windows that can turn a great development into something more squat like.

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saveHOVE says...
11:05am Thu 13 Dec 12

This may be just what London Road needs to help regenerate its fortunes.

A management plan is vital to ensure the students do not, as heartthrob suggests, junk up the windows so it looks like a squat.

And that same management plan must restrict impact on neighbours noise-wise.

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AmboGuy says...
11:12am Thu 13 Dec 12

If it gets them out of Hanover then I'm all for it.

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Bob_The_Ferret says...
11:56am Thu 13 Dec 12

What a tragic loss of potential retail space.

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Lady Smith says...
12:06pm Thu 13 Dec 12

AmboGuy wrote:
If it gets them out of Hanover then I'm all for it.
And Bear Road area...

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mrtricky says...
12:12pm Thu 13 Dec 12

The £1 shops will have a great trade from them.

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Dealing with idiots says...
12:40pm Thu 13 Dec 12

There goes the neighbourhood

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Flippin Burghers says...
3:43pm Thu 13 Dec 12

London Rd is already a sh!thole. Now it's going to have 350 students too. Genius.

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bug eye says...
5:14pm Thu 13 Dec 12

what a shame another neighbourhood destined to get worse. trying to move them out of private houses rlses and into managed flats will not work. these types of accommodation will be too expensive for most students, and students do not want to managed and watched 24/7. a disaster for the Greens to put the nail in the coffin of london road, no decent business or shop will move in now. clearly the uni is in the pocket of the planners as this is becoming widespread in the city and families are losing out on having new homes on these sites in favour of students what will the flats look like in a few years time when its too late, absolutely disgusting.

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mustaphaLeeko says...
6:13pm Thu 13 Dec 12

Get real, what a bunch of moaners most of you are, I know some mature students, they are NOTHING like the ones that cause general mayhem at weekends with noise etc.

This building is as stated, mostly for mature students, and will have rules to abide by, and WILL no doubt have a resident manager living on site.

It is ridiculous to think that ALL students are the same, especially mature ones, who clearly are NOT in my experience.

Well done to the planning committee for letting the university invest MILLIONS in what is one of the t*rdiest, grottiest areas of Brighton.

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Maxwell's Ghost says...
7:46pm Thu 13 Dec 12

bug eye, 54,000 fewer young people applied to uni in England this year. There is a huge cultural change underway with young people not expecting to attend uni and in the next few years it's estimated that there will be a 25 per cent drop. Also students are now paying approximately £27,000p/a for fees alone so paying another £4,000 p/a to live in a student slum tied into a ten month contract is now becoming unaffordable and unrealistic.
The unis know this and will be looking to provide accommodation so they can offer a fee/accommodation package to attract students.
Many hospitals and health trusts and other professions provide accommodation for their trainees and its accepted as necessary while training and uni education will be the same.
It's a good opportunity for the students to live in clean, warm serviced accommodation managed by a proper company instead of amateur landlords who sadly sometimes treat students as kids who can be fobbed off with poor service and standards.

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AmboGuy says...
10:00pm Thu 13 Dec 12

Maxwell's Ghost wrote:
bug eye, 54,000 fewer young people applied to uni in England this year. There is a huge cultural change underway with young people not expecting to attend uni and in the next few years it's estimated that there will be a 25 per cent drop. Also students are now paying approximately £27,000p/a for fees alone so paying another £4,000 p/a to live in a student slum tied into a ten month contract is now becoming unaffordable and unrealistic.
The unis know this and will be looking to provide accommodation so they can offer a fee/accommodation package to attract students.
Many hospitals and health trusts and other professions provide accommodation for their trainees and its accepted as necessary while training and uni education will be the same.
It's a good opportunity for the students to live in clean, warm serviced accommodation managed by a proper company instead of amateur landlords who sadly sometimes treat students as kids who can be fobbed off with poor service and standards.
It's probably worth noting that bugeye is a landlord of student accommodation around the city so clearly he doesn't want this to go ahead.

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Maxwell's Ghost says...
10:37pm Thu 13 Dec 12

He probably bought his Moulsecoomb council house with a full discount for £30,000 and now rents it to students for £2,000 a month and fears that the game is over.
If these unis want to compete with unis abroad where there are no fees they have no choice but to offer good quality, clean central accommodation instead of students living in the slums in this city.
The poor kids next to me had no heating for a month last winter because the slum landlord had **** off to Spain for six months.

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bug eye says...
11:52pm Thu 13 Dec 12

Maxwell really needs to get his facts right before saying things that are not true about people in the public domain, but then again he is a journalist. his rants are always anti landlord with no facts, any landlord operating outside of the law as he often suggests about his neighbour if true can be dealt with. brighton unis remain very popular and whilst some unis may see a drop in numbers brighton has not and continues to grow or they would not be building. the new student buildings will only be used by the rich foreign students as they are more expensive than shared houses. students leaving home do not want to go in to large blocks where they cannot live independently or have fun, they want to live together in the community, and do not necessarily behave any worse than a family may. I doubt any landlord is worried with homes in such short supply. large developers do not care about the community or they would build in another part of the city, but they know where students want to live, and this will only increase studentification and London road will now never get a John Lewis.

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bob_from_brighton says...
9:33am Fri 14 Dec 12

I'm a resident of Hanover. Don't mind students if integrated in - but the fresher houses of a few years ago were a nightmare - thankfully it seems to be calming down of the last 2 years. Every time I see these forums I completely agree with Maxwell Ghost (good to see someone sticking up for common sense in the neighbourhood against the vested interests).
Students are changing and an increasing proportion want a decent tidy room to plonk their apple mac (no criticism implied). As repeated before 1st years concentrated in a row of houses is not appropriate for a residential area - hence these blocks are more suited. Perhaps the blocks are still better on campus though.

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Fairfax Sakes says...
11:37am Fri 14 Dec 12

London Road?
Lets get ready to P-A-R-T-Y! Whoop whooooop!

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Skidrow says...
1:03pm Mon 17 Dec 12

£27k pa tuition fees? You are talking out of your butt.

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Skidrow says...
1:16pm Mon 17 Dec 12

So 350 mainly mature jobdodgers won't be looking elsewhere in the student accommodation market. There are 38000 students at the 2 uni's so unless your accommodation is in the worst .1% you will still fill it easily.
London Rd isn't fit for a John, never mind a John Lewis.

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AburridoEnTrabajo says...
10:02am Tue 18 Dec 12

I'd be surprised if they can find any students desperate enough to live along the London Road.

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