CHESHIRE West and Chester Council leader Mike Jones is backing a student village for Chester to restore ‘balance’ to the community.
Bell Developments has re-submitted a planning application for a 2,500-bed student village and Steve Redgrave sports facilities on green belt land near Mollington.
Cllr Jones told the Dee 106.3 radio station he supports the principle of as student village but can’t get involved with the application because he’s declared an interest due to his friendship with the Bell family.
He said: “We have got streets now in the Garden Lane area that have no families. Handbridge is getting hit quite badly with students in the terraced houses. Upton and Vicars Cross, Hoole and Newton – a lot of these areas are starting to get taken over by students.”
“It’s a serious concern because as soon as we start taking families out of these areas you are going to start losing the schools and you’re going to lose the facilities they use and students’ expenditure is quite narrow.
“Yes, they like the KFCs or the pizzas and the bars. They are doing well, but actually the quality shops that we’ve got in Chester need families and visitors and if we have an over predominance of students we will start to lose the quality shops in Chester.”
Talking about plans for 550-bed student accommodation on Linenhall, he said: “This proposal uses land that’s got planning permission for houses so where do we put family houses? Well, the only place we’re going to put family houses, if we use all this brownfield land up, is in the greenbelt and people don’t like that. Or do we have a strategic solution, which is where I’ve been for the last six years, which is a proper student village with its own accommodation, its own services like laundries, shops and bars.”
