YET another York student accommodation block looks set to win planning permission, despite objections from local residents who fear noise and disturbance.

City of York Council’s planning committee is being urged to approve KMRE Group’s revised proposals to demolish Waterloo House in Fawcett Street, Fishergate - home to former plumbing merchants Plumbase until 2019 - and build a 3 and 3.5 storey block with 85 bedrooms.

A report to the meeting on Wednesday says the firm originally wanted to build a five storey block with 105 bedrooms, and officers had objected to this, concerned about the building’s scale and bulk and how its five storeys with a flat roof would appear ‘alien’ in views from the city walls.

“The revised scheme has amended the scale and form of the proposed buildings in accordance with comments from the conservation architect,” says the report by Jonathan Kenyon.

“The building, towards Fawcett Street, better respects the urban grain and is suitably reduced in scale by dual pitched roof form. The rear section (outside of the conservation area) has been reduced in height, from 5 to 3.5 storey, it has a more varied and traditional pitched roof form.”

He said 26 representations had been received, raising concerns about problems including increased noise from students coming and going and traffic, and increased litter, disturbance to residents of Barbican Court and overlooking and loss of sunlight at surrounding dwellings.

But he concluded the scheme was ‘acceptable in principle,’ there was evident demand for purpose built student accommodation and planning decisions must give “substantial weight”to the value of using suitable brownfield land within settlements for housing.