A GROUP of Bangor residents have renewed calls for Gwynedd Council to reject plans to build a student accommodation development on the site of a former builders’ yard.
Residents from the city’s Hirael area have joined local councillor Jean Forsyth in objecting to plans to build seven accommodation blocks, which would house more than 160 students, on the former Jewson site in Hirael.
Planning officers from Gwynedd Council have recommended the development’s approval but Cllr Forsyth is hoping to persuade fellow councillors to reject the plans when they come before the council’s planning committee, during a meeting in Pwllheli on Monday.
Cllr Forsyth is expected to tell the committee that the development is the “wrong thing in the wrong place”.
She will say: “It represents an over development on a grand scale of a huge student campus in a set of structures that will look like campus Colditz in a predominantly residential area.”
Residents are keen to see the disused site, which was subject to an arson attack in August, turned into housing for local people.
Cllr Forsyth told the Chronicle that there was real objection to the student accommodation in the community.
“There is a real community in Hirael and it does have a voice,” she said.
“It’s a site that cries out to be used for social or private housing.”
However, Alyn Nicholls of Alyn Nicholls and Associates, who are acting on behalf of Hughes and Co Ltd, the developers behind the proposed student accommodation, said the site needs to be developed.
“The former Jewson’s site is derelict, an eyesore and has been the subject of anti-social behaviour,” he said.
“There is a requirement for purpose built student accommodation in Bangor and demand is likely to grow in the future.
“We have spent a lot of time taking care over the issues of design, car parking, access and other aspects of the development.
“It is disappointing that the proposal has given rise to objections but we believe we have demonstrated there are no reasonable grounds to refuse this planning application.”