New 26-bed student accommodation block to be built in Portsmouth

Plans for a three-storey build in Warwick Crescent, in Southsea, were approved by Portsmouth councillors during a virtual planning committee meeting.

The development, which will be constructed on the site of the demolished Mystery Pub, will include four five-bedroom apartments and one six-bedroom apartment as well as storage for 26 bikes but no car parking spaces.

Proposals had sparked concerns for neighbours over the size of the build and lack of parking – with three objections filed.

During the meeting a deputation from Florentina Boorman, who lives in nearby Grosvenor Street, was read out. She said: ‘The height of the new building is going to cast a permanent shadow over my garden and my house.

‘Secondly, it’s going to compromise the privacy of my house and garden as it’s going to be horribly overlooked.’

She added: ‘The area is over-saturated with student accommodation. The city is crying out, like the rest of the country, for affordable housing.’

Permission for eight units in a similar three-storey build on the site was granted in April 2019.

Agent for the applicant, PDP Architecture, said: ‘The proposed building is a similar height, scale and massing and design to that of the (previous) planning application, which itself is based on the scale and massing of the Mystery public house.

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‘In some areas the design is actually smaller than the approved scheme.’

Councillors ruled that there were no grounds to refuse the plans.

Cllr Lee Hunt said: ‘Unfortunately if we wanted to throw this application out the facts is this was a pub before and this building is almost the same size as the pub.

‘We have also got that we granted permission for a very similar sized building.’

Cllr Matthew Atkins agreed. ‘We probably would rather see affordable housing at the location rather than student accommodation,’ he said.

‘Unfortunately none of those are material planning considerations and it would be overturned on approval.’

The most recent design for the units from PDP Architecture shows a reduction to three-storeys, compared to a previous proposal of a part three, part four-storey build and a ‘witch’s hat’ turret.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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