Glad Bendigo is going, but more student flats?
MIXED FEELINGS OVER PLANS FOR CITY’S ‘UGLIEST BUILDING’
PLANNING permission has been given for what was once dubbed “Nottingham’s ugliest building” to be demolished and replaced by a 13-storey student accommodation block.
The new development – to be built by Godwin Developments on Bath Street – will provide a total of 692 student bed spaces in a mix of studios and four-to-six-bedroomed flats.
The Bendigo building, formerly a Royal Mail sorting office, has been vacant for many years.
There will also be secure vehicle and pedestrian entrances on to Brook Street, with access to the proposed six car parking spaces, 312 secure cycle parking spaces, bin stores, plant rooms and substations.
St Mary’s Rest Garden and Victoria Hall student accommodation are next to the new development.
Many residents are happy that the old building is going to be demolished.
But there is disappointment that more student accommodation will be replacing it.
Owen Roberts, 30, who works in marketing, said: “Every building in the area is being turned into student accommodation.
“Surely there is a better use for a building that big?
“I’d like it to have been replaced by a lot of little shops or places where people can work.”
Thomas Brown, 50, who works in private security, said: “I’ll be very glad when it’s gone – it looks like an old Soviet set of flats.
“I’d rather it was not a student place but I’d rather it be used by someone.”
Hospitality worker Raf Barron,
39, said: “It makes it hard for families like mine to find places to live.
“I remember checking places and finding they were only for students over and over again.
“I’d prefer if it was a community space, like a hub for entrepreneurs or something that adds to this area more than just the number of students.
“Of course, we want the students but they are only here for a certain period of time. We don’t want this area to be a ghost town when they leave every year.”
Overlooking St Mary’s Rest Garden, the Bendigo Building is named after 19th-century St Ann’s champion boxer William “Bendigo” Thompson, who went undefeated in 23 fights during his career which lasted from 1825 until 1850.
Matt Anderson, head of the Victoria Park Tenants’ and Residents’ Association, thought that there were a number of issues with the planning permission being granted.
He said: “It will overshadow the rest garden and it increases the number of students in the area.
“It will box in the lower areas and the size of it is a real problem, because it will set a precedent for other abandoned buildings – like the Bowman building – to be replaced with huge towering blocks for students.
“St Ann’s is one of the most deprived areas in the country and anything that affects the park where people have been able to have a break from the pandemic, it will be ghettoised if we’re not careful about the balance. “The council is always letting these student projects based on their and the universities’ figures. No-one has voted for this constant building of student accommodation.
“Also no-one has brought up that the roads around the building are used by the emergency services as rat-runs so the extra traffic from this building could be really problematic.”
It makes it hard for families like mine to find places to live
Raf Barron, 39