Construction of newspaper stories 3

A proposal for more student flats in Chichester raises concern

A further increase in student housing on a corner of the city of Chichester has raised concern by residents on the effect this would have.

The representative of the people who live in the Stockbridge area the Southern Gateway Residents Association has spoken about the concern for plans to turn the Edwardian building into further accommodation for 88 students on the Chichester High School for Girls site on Stockbridge Road.  

This accommodation would be for the students at the University of Chichester. On top of that immediately south of this is a building for Chichester College which is currently being built in four blocks which is 321 flats. This brings the total number of students that will be living in the area to 409.

This work that is being done would include an extra floor being built. Also alteration and an extension would be added and converting the space into 18 flats with shared facilities.

Chairman of the Residents’ Association Alan Green said “This was a significant increase and would cause a demographic imbalance. This represents an increase in population of 90 per cent and makes for an imbalance in the mix of housing, leading to the inevitable stresses arising from the very different lifestyles of students, those of more mature years and those with young families. The major issue was of the disturbance a student population would cause in a residential area late at night after pubs and bars had closed. The night-time economy gives scope for a steady stream of noisy student revellers until well into the early hours of the morning, and even if the Thursday’s bus drops students off outside the gate, there will be noise as the revellers disembark. The problems with disturbance, anti-social behaviour and demographic imbalance that high densities of student population can cause in residential areas are well known in other university towns such as Southampton where the acute problem is known as studentification”.

The Seaman Partnership which is in charge of the development said “as the site was close to the city of Chichester and college facilities the need for private car use was vastly reduced because students would cycle or walk. It is also close to bus routes.” The plans include car parking spaces for eight cars which includes two disabled parking spaces and four motorcycles.

Although the association said it was highly unlikely a population of 88 students would only have eight cars and four motorbikes especially since the university campus it two kilometres away from this housing. The car parking problems would be made worse due to the lack of parking that would be provided.

Proposals submitted said the scheme would help save the deteriorating Edwardian building.

The Chichester Society said it would not succeed in preserving it as a historic asset as the appearance would be drastically altered.

The Seaman Partnership said the scheme would support the university and would be of a high quality.