We have serious concerns about the proposed St Botolph’s
Quarter development and having attended the recent public exhibition at
Greyfriars by Alumno Group and Building Partnerships, those concerns have been
amplified. The main development proposals are for a 90 bedroom (approx.) hotel
next to the new Curzon cinema on Queen Street and for a 330 bedroom (approx.)
student accommodation block on the former bus station site adjacent to
Firstsite. Our concerns include the following:
1)
The St Botolphs area is supposed to be a
cultural quarter and yet the proposed development offers minimal new cultural
facilities; only a possible performance space for Colchester Institute students
within the accommodation block. Most of the development is student
accommodation with nothing related to heritage and no additional public arts,
craft or leisure facilities, which is a huge missed opportunity.
2)
The development is being sold to the public by
Alumno as ‘mixed development’ when in fact is essentially a hotel and student
accommodation block with retail facilities largely for students and hotel
guests. The Alumno rep admitted that the retail spaces would be leased at a
market rate (meaning expensive) to student-friendly chains of the Costa coffee
and Nandos type (the rep actually mentioned Nandos). Given that Colchester
desperately needs a low rent retail area to create a vibrant small business hub
such as the Lanes in Brighton, this is another huge missed opportunity. Once
again large corporate chains are being given priority over small retailers and
local independents.
3)
This development proposal is being led not by
the community but by commercial interests and profit maximisation. The local
community has been invited to comment on the developers’ proposals but not on
the actual use that the site should be put to. This therefore is not a truly
democratic process. The public and local residents should be consulted by the
Borough Council on whether student accommodation is the best use of this site.
4)
The density of the proposed development raises a
number of micro issues. The North Building of the accommodation block obscures
the view of Firstsite and Berryfield from the Curzon cinema restaurant space,
while the Central Building obscures the view from the proposed new hotel. The
height of both the hotel and much of the accommodation block is four storeys,
as high as Firstsite. This is a much bigger and much denser set of buildings
than the recently demolished building next to the Curzon and would totally
block the view of Firstsite from Queen Street.
5)
The student accommodation itself is being
pitched at the high end of the market. The Alumno rep flatly refused to
indicate what the likely rent levels are to be, indeed she stated that it was
against company policy to divulge that information. However she then went on to
state that it would be ‘market rate’. This is a euphemism for expensive. This
development is a private commercial venture by Alumno and not by the University
of Essex. Not only does it contribute to what amounts to the privatisation of
higher education and student infrastructure but it also does nothing to address
the problem of high student living costs and debt. Furthermore, if as is
possible, not all of the 330 bedrooms are let to students, due to the high
rents, then it is possible that the accommodation could end up as high-cost
flats.
6)
There is no social housing proposed for the
site. Given that the Borough Council are constantly (and with reason) pointing
out the need for more social housing in Colchester, this is surprising to say
the least.
7)
Alumno have stated that none of the students
will be allowed to have cars and that there will be no parking for either
students or hotel guests on site. We welcome the fact that there is an intention
to minimise additional traffic in the area. However this means that hotel
guests will be told to use the Priory Street car park, putting additional
pressure on that facility. Moreover, it is not clear how Alumno will enforce
the no car rule regarding the students. When they were asked what would happen
if students park cars ‘under the radar’ on nearby car parks, the Alumno rep
stated that it would be up to local residents to report this. This raises the
question of how local residents are supposed to identify whether car owners are
students or not, how they are supposed to prove it and who would have the
authority to approach drivers in a car park and question them.
Therefore we believe that the Borough Council needs to look
at this again. The area does need careful and considered development however
this should be led by community need as opposed to corporate greed. We believe
that creating a vibrant, low rent retail area of specialised independent shops,
combined with new heritage facilities and museum space would be a much better
use of the site. Also if some badly needed social housing were to be part of a
genuinely mixed use development then this would help towards alleviating some
of the pressure to build on greenfield sites.
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