'Blinkered' city planners 'trying to block new tallest building'

DEVELOPER SAYS COUNCIL ASKING FOR TOO MUCH

- By JOSHUA HARTLEY

CITY planners are trying to block what would be Nottingham’s tallest building, putting the £150 million project in limbo, says its developer.

CODE Students wants to build its student accommodation megaproject which it has been working on for more than four years on Glasshouse Street.

After an extended design and consultation period, it submitted plans in late 2023 for linked 27 and 19-storey structures at charity Base 51’s old offices. The £150 million building would house around 1,250 students, but the developer says it has been struggling to make progress in the face of opposition from the city council's planning department for more than a year.

CODE managing director Jamie Lewis said: “It’s ridiculous and I don’t know what they are doing in Nottingham or why they are behaving like this. Other sites have been approved, built and occupied in this time.

“It's a complete outlier. For Coventry, for example, we have had an application in and approved in six months. This site has been allocated for a tall building for 20 years, but for decades nothing has been able to come forward - the planners are asking for too much.”