Why two huge new Manchester developments were knocked back by the council

Manchester city council’s planning committee voted against two major developments in and around the city centre at a major town hall meeting on Tuesday (May 31).

Plans for a 34-storey tower between the Northern Quarter and Ancoats were knocked back alongside a bid to build a 261-bed student complex in Hulme.

Decisions over a 15-storey tower in Store Street and a listed office rebuild in Fountain Street were also deferred so that councillors could visit these sites.

All of these applications will come back to the planning committee at another meeting allowing for officers to prepare another report to address concerns.

Campaigners from Block the Block filled the council chamber to show their opposition to the student accommodation at the former Gamecock pub site.

However, they left the meeting unsure whether to celebrate the outcome.

Director of planning Julie Roscoe explained that, in effect, the applications which councillors voted against have been deferred until the next meeting.

She said: “I just want to avoid any confusion because the application will need to come back.

“It’s not actually been refused at this meeting.

“We will be required to bring it back and comment on the concerns raised.

“It will turn up on another agenda and I don’t want anybody to be confused by that.”

Councillors questioned claims made by developer Curlew that more student accommodation was needed in the area which is located near the universities.

It followed speeches made on behalf of Aquarius Estate residents and by local councillors who raised concerns about the 13-storey tower blocking sunlight.

They also argued that the building itself would be ‘bland’ and ‘uninspiring’.

The committee was ‘minded to refuse’ the application on the grounds that the height of the new block would be detrimental to the area and ‘over-intrusive’.

Concerns were also raised about the lack of disabled parking provided on the site.

The committee came to a similar conclusion about the plans for 485 flats including a 34-storey tower in Port Street, raising concerns about the scale.

Labour councillor Sam Wheeler argued that developer SimpsonHaugh could afford to contribute more than the £1m offered for off-site affordable housing.

He also criticised the M1 Piccadilly project in Store Street which proposed building a 15-storey tower with 54 flats, none of which would be affordable.

The Piccadilly ward councillor claimed that the £125,000 offered towards affordable housing elsewhere would not buy a single flat in this scheme.

A decision on the development, which has been backed by Liverpool footballer Naby Keita, has been deferred to allow the planning committee to visit the site.

Plans to rebuild a Grade-II listed city centre office block – but keep its Victorian façade – were also put on hold to allow for a site visit before a decision is made.

The rest of the applications on the agenda of the two-and-a-half hour meeting – which included a rooftop extension at On Bar in Canal Street, a petrol station extension in Levenshulme  and a new café bar in Fallowfield – were approved.