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Planning Considerations

Any planning application will require assessment against the documents that comprise the adopted development plan for Plymouth, as well as ‘material considerations’ that include national planning policy.

The development plan for Plymouth is formed by a number of documents with the Plymouth Core Strategy(April 2007) setting out the Council’s strategic approach. This document is silent on purpose built student accommodation, but is being replaced by the emerging Plymouth Local Plan and the Council have approved Part One of this emerging plan.

This emerging plan identifies that purpose built student accommodation will contribute to meeting local housing needs through reducing demand for student occupation of family dwellings.

The Plymouth Plan Part One supports student accommodation where this:

  • Is close to the education establishments;
  • Supports wider regeneration objectives;
  • Is acceptable in terms of their impact on existing residential areas; and
  • Provides decent accommodation with support facilities and appropriate provisions for on-going management of the development.

In addition, Plymouth City Council’s Development Guidelines Supplementary Planning Document (First Review – May 2013) sets out a series of detailed considerations that any proposal would have to address. These include the following areas:

  • Ensuring a design in keeping with the character of the local area;
  • Providing access to vehicle and cycle parking taking account of the maximum parking standards and context;
  • Ensuring no harm to highway safety;
  • Safeguarding future occupiers from noise from nearby businesses;
  • Ensuring the development is sustainable and energy efficient; and
  • Ensuring that any contaminated land is identified and addressed.

We consider that the site is an ideal location for the envisaged high quality student accommodation given its location within 800m of Plymouth University and adjacent to the District Centre at Mutley Plain with key public transport routes along this. The existing snooker hall is not financially viable and presents no meaningful opportunity for conversion to any other viable uses.

While some of the matters identified above are self-evident or technical items that will be addressed within thesubmission (e.g. sound insulation to prevent noise from local businesses), your input is sought to ensure that all relevant matters pertinent to these issues are identified and appropriately addressed.

In particular the proposal will include management strategies to ensure no harm to transport interests or local residential amenity occurs.