STUDENTS will not have to worry about transport links at some proposed new flats – as they will be built right in the middle of one of Brighton’s busiest roundabouts.

The forty-four occupants who could be calling the site home will have a BP garage for a neighbour if this latest student accommodation proposal gets the go ahead from councillors.

The six-storey high building on the Vogue Gyratory would have a reception, communal space, laundrette and toilets on the ground floor with self-contained flats on floors one to five.

Developers McLaren Property purchased the White Crow pub in Lewes Road, Brighton, in a “dilapidated state” after it was vacated by its tenant and said no operator could be found for it.

The former pub, which was demolished without authorisation, would be replaced by new flats with a “chalk grassland” green roof with 36 bike spaces but no car parking.

The company has been granted permission for 96 student flats at two other sites close by in Lewes Road and had been using the former pub site as a building site for their other two developments.

A planning application for the White Crow site to be used as a construction compound for two years was refused in May.

The first of the developers' three student accommodation blocks, called Sawmills, has now been completed and is fully occupied with a mixture of University of Brighton and Sussex students.

Just five letters of objections have been submitted against the plans and ward councillors say residents may have been caught unaware by the speed the application has progressed.

Objectors say the new block would add to the “studentification” of the Lewes Road area as well as raising concerns about the safety of new residents crossing the busy roundabout and the “overdevelopment” of the 463 sqm site.

Environmental health officers have also raised concerns about the impact on students of early morning deliveries to the petrol station shop and plant noise.

And they raised the possibility that windows might have to be sealed to keep out nitrogen dioxide from car fumes.

A McLaren Property spokesman said the latest plans were in response to high demand for purpose-built student housing in the area.

He said: “The occupancy trend for Sawmills is one which we expect to continue with both the consented 119 Lewes Road development and the proposed 106 Lewes Road development, providing a real alternative to local HMOs and further relieving pressure on local family housing stock”.

A decision on the proposals will be made at the city council's planning committee later today. [Wednesday]