Apartment building proposals back before planners

Previously approved plans for the redevelopment of a site in Birmingham to enable the creation of a 12-storey apartment building are to be reviewed by planners for a third time.Prosperity Developments’ plans involve the creation of 116 apartments at 16 Kent Street, comprising 64 two-bed and 52 one-bed units.The application site is located at the junction of Kent Street and Lower Essex Street. On the opposite side of Lower Essex Street to the east is the Nightingale Club and a further phase of the Unity & Armouries development site.The application was approved by Birmingham City Council’s planning committee at a meeting on 22 July 2021, subject to the completion of a legal agreement to secure affordable housing less the cost of noise mitigation works at the Nightingale Club.Originally, the noise mitigation works at the Nightingale were to be secured via a planning condition requiring an agent of change agreement. Plans were reported back to committee on 6 January 2022, setting out the new mechanism to secure the agreement.However, the applicant has now confirmed that it is no longer willing to enter into an agent of change agreement. It is instead proposing to seal all windows on the Lower Essex Street elevation facing the Nightingale Club.The company’s plans will now be reviewed at a meeting on 17 March.Refusal has been recommended.