Revised plans for a student accommodation block of 160 bedrooms close to the Waterfront are to face scrutiny next week.
Ipswich Borough Council’s planning and development committee will soon review the application for a five-storey building with 26 flats located between Tye Road and Duke Street.
The previous applications made by Norwich-based developers Jaevee for a taller block were refused.
The building was supposed to be up to six storeys high and contain 172 bedrooms.
The recent proposal for a smaller building has to meet the council’s outlines, which include providing £205,597 for, among other things, monitoring, setting up an open space, and taking care of its maintenance.
Ipswich Borough Council refused the previous application, questioning the proposed height and scale of the design, which would be viewable from Duke Street and was not in keeping with the “special character and local distinctiveness of Ipswich”.
Local residents expressed their concerns regarding the scale of the previously proposed development.
The site has already been cleared and a single block comprising 16 flats is being built there.
A car park for 16 cars, as well as public open space and a new footpath will also be set up there.
The University of Suffolk has a student population of between 9,500 and 10,000, with a vast proportion of undergraduates who rely on the private sector or university-owned accommodation.
There is only one on-campus student residence, which can accommodate 590 students.
IBC Urban Design made an objection, which states that the scale of this development remains “unacceptable”.
SCC Highways raised concerns regarding the provision of safe and secure access to the site as well as ensuring that appropriate opportunities to promote sustainable transport have been taken up.
Ipswich Advisory Conservation and Design Panel said that the plans were “only modestly improved over the earlier refused scheme”.
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