'It belongs in a prison camp': 'Awful' student block WILL be built after council green light

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

New student accommodation blocks labelled “unimaginative” and "boring" WILL be built A block containing 353 student studios on Frederick Road and Cheltenham Street, as well as 148 student flats north of Broughton Road East and east of Seaford Road, were given the thumbs up by Salford Council's Planning and Transportation Regulatory Panel.

But the Frederick Road site was met with condemnation and compared to a prison by one councillor. Coun Bob Clarke said it looked like it belonged 'on Rikers Island' - where New York's main jail complex is housed.

He said: “It is not good is it. Yet another blot on the landscape. There is just no attempt to make it look nice.

“One elevation looks like it belongs on Rikers Island with the narrow windows. We have got to have a better street scene than this.

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“We are closing the sky off to people and all we can see is concrete and glass monstrosities and it drains the life out of me. I just don’t know what we are trying to achieve here.

“In 10 years time we will stand back and say who did that, because it is awful. I know we need accommodation for students but really a modern day prison block is not what we should be building.”

The 10 to 15 storey accommodation offers studio flats with a bedroom space, shower room and kitchenette and living area. The proposal includes 120 bicycle spaces at ground level.

But greeing with Coun Clarke, Coun Warmisham questioned why the applicants, X1, would want to build residential accommodation right next to a waste facility which prompts numerous complaints about the stench in summer. He said the officers need to look at themselves and questioned why pushed for the scheme