Developers ‘serious’ about student village between Blacon and Mollington

Mar 17 2011 by David Holmes, Chester Chronicle

DEVELOPERS insist there is no hidden agenda to build anything other than a student village in Chester.

A petition, headed ‘opposition to building on Chester’s greenbelt’, alleged Bell Developments will seek to pursue a more commercial residential scheme once it gains consent for a student village on fields between Blacon and Mollington.

And the e-petition, lodged with Cheshire West and Chester Council, stated the Bell scheme could set a precedent which would sound the death-knell for other greenbelt land ‘if we don’t make a stand’.

Dave Bell, managing director of Bell Developments, would not rule anything out but said at ‘this moment in time’ the intention was to create a student village.

Explaining the planning system, he added: “We would not automatically get consent from student accommodation to houses.

“We would not have shown the special circumstances for houses.”

Mr Bell believes some expansion into the greenbelt is unavoidable if Chester is to grow. He said even if student accommodation was placed on previously developed brown-field sites then it would mean placing family houses in the greenbelt.

He added: “We are going to have to have some expansion of the city and my personal view is that it’s about choosing the most appropriate place to put that.”

The petitioners say: “We support Chester University’s aim to provide quality accommodation for its students, provided this does not involve the destruction of greenbelt or environmentally fragile land.

“Our ethos is, and will always be, to value Chester’s greenbelt and to object to any intrusion into it unless absolutely necessary.”