Approval for major student flats scheme

Plans for a 12-storey building to accommodate more than 460 students in Leicester have been approved.Watkins Jones Group has secured the go-ahead from the city council for the scheme which will be made up of 415 clusters beds, 47 studios, amenity space and a commercial unit on the ground floor.The site is located in Bath Lane and All Saints Road in the Waterside area of the city and is scheduled for completion ahead of the 2021/22 academic year.Insider first revealed plans for the project in August 2018.The group previously delivered an adjacent PBSA scheme, Merlin Heights, a 601-bed scheme in 2016.The almost two-acre site was previously occupied by industrial warehouses but is now level and vacant after it was cleared when permission was granted in 2007 to redevelop the area.Watkins Jones has also secured planning on an adjacent site for a build to rent development of 184 units, comprising 31 studios, 101 one-bedroom apartments and 52 two-bedroom flats, as well as residents’ amenity space and car parking over six storeys.That scheme is set to be competed in 2021.