Planners reject student halls appeal for White Lion Street

Published: 9 April 2010
by RÓISÍN GADELRAB

A DEVELOPER has accused Islington Council of squandering the opportunity to free-up family homes after a planning inspector turned down plans for a complex of student flats and offices.

Charles Fish, of Mortar Developments Group, believes his firm’s scheme to build student flats in White Lion Street could have made homes currently being used by students available for families.

Mortar took Islington Council to a planning appeal before government inspector Tim Wood in February after their scheme for 65-70 White Lion Street was rejected by the west area planning committee.

The firm wanted to replace the existing building with 1,372 sq m of office space and 103 student studios.

But Islington Council argued the proportion of student accommodation was too high and that the development should be “commercially led”.

Thomas Hill QC, representing Mortar told the inquiry the firm had agreed to change the balance of the scheme from a 80-20 per cent split student flats to offices, to 60-40 – but that the council was still not willing to compromise.

The firm also said White Lion Street already has a surplus of empty office accommodation.

But inspector Wood, in a dismissal of Mortar’s appeal published this week, said Islington had specifically earmarked the area to provide enough office space to last until 2026.

He added that it would be “unduly pessimistic” to judge the demand for office space on “current economic decisions”.

On the need for student homes, he said: “I consider that the provision of employment floorspace should take precedence over the provision of student accommodation in this case.”

Mr Fish, development manager for Mortar, said the company had spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on the plans – as well as months of meetings with planning officers – so was frustrated when councillors rejected the scheme.

He said: “We got professional planners advising us, approving it and then some untrained people just turned it down. We’re flabbergasted.

“Islington already has a huge glut of office accommodation – you just have to look down White Lions Street with all the To Let boards.”

He said Mortar began building student accommodation in Nottingham 20 years ago and managed to move many students from residential homes into their flats, making more space for families to move back in.

He added: “It’s a semi-derelict site holding just a few people. There’s a great opportunity for redevelopment and we were going to put £400,000 into Islington’s coffers. It would have been affordable student accommodation.

“We put a Freedom of Information request into Islington Council and found there were 1,069 properties registered as student houses – that’s about 3 or 4,000 students in family housing. With our developments, students go into well managed secure accommodation and return the properties back to family housing.”

He said the firm was looking at the possibility of returning with new plans.

An Islington Council Spokesman said: “Planning officers felt it was important to resist this appeal and we are pleased the Planning Inspector agreed with us.

“Our town centres need good quality office and commercial accommodation and this scheme did not provide the right balance as it gave more space for student accommodation than we felt was acceptable.