Defence Online

Plans for a £35m mixed-use scheme on the site of a former car dealership in Sheffield look set to be approved almost a year after councillors rejected the “unacceptable” proposals.Hallminster wants to develop a vacant one-acre plot on Ecclesall Road into student accommodation with 21,000 sq ft of retail space on the ground floor. The site was previously home to a Vauxhall showroom.Its latest submission for the site is to build 144 one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom apartments along with 40 clusters of four-, five- and six-bed student groups totalling 190 bedrooms.The development, designed by Bond Bryan Architects, would vary in height from six to 11 storeys. There would also be a basement car park and a landscaped courtyard for residents.The plans come 11 months after Sheffield City Council refused a similar application by Hallminster, saying the project would be too big for the surrounding area and could damage the prospect of redeveloping neighbouring land.At the time, officers added the proposed 12-storey block would be “completely out of scale with its immediate surroundings” and was “inappropriate in this location”.However, the developer has sought to overcome these concerns by reducing the overall height of the student building by 15 per cent and rearranging the internal layout.A planning statement by Crowley Associates said the latest application is “thoughtful, articulate, respectful of its surroundings and slightly quirky”.