New student flats in Newcastle town centre and two commercial units have been refused planning permission by Newcastle Borough Council.

The part five-storey, part three-storey building on Liverpool Road, where previously a children's play centre was located.

As well as 55 student flats there would be two commercial units fronting Liverpool Road. The plans were recommended for approval by planning officers at the council. To avoid a 'canyoning' effect with the five storeys fronting Liverpool Road, the fifth storey was planned to be significantly set back so it wouldn't be visible from ground level.

Only 10 parking spaces were set to be provided at the site, as officers said the site was in a highly sustainable location, with close transport links to both Keele University and Staffordshire University. No disabled bays were proposed and normally a maximum of 25 would have been needed for the student accommodation.

Commenting on the plans, Councillor Andrew Fear said: "I have to say this is a disappointing application in a variety of ways. I look at the design of the building, I know the report refers to it as being clean and contemporary, this means of course bland and featureless. 

Councillors described the application as 'disappointing' (Google).

"This building is overbearing, in its context, it is an enormous poke in the eye. So I worry quite a lot about the design in that regard. I also of course worry about the fact there is no parking allocated.

"It seems to me a soft history of the first order to say this was a children's play area, indeed it was, and therefore the volume of cars will be the same, this is just not true. Parents used to drop off their children at this thing, go away, pick them up again."

On hearing that the 10 parking spaces provided will not contain any disabled parking spaces, Councillor Mark Holland commented: "This is completely unacceptable – I will not vote for it."

The 55 student flats would be made up of 42 studios and 13 cluster flats. In total there would be 101 bed spaces provided. However the expansion of student accommodation in the town centre is a concern for some residents.

Councillor Richard Gorton told the planning committee: "This idea of another student flat development, if you talk to people one of the concerns they've got is the amount of student accommodation we're having in the town centre. I don't know if both universities, Keele and Staffordshire universities are on a big student expansion program at the moment. We seem to have quite a lot of spare student accommodation already."

Councillors at the planning committee at Newcastle Borough Council voted unanimously to refuse granting planning permission.

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