Council and developer team up to try and push through major redevelopment scheme

Council and developer team up to try and push through major redevelopment schemeNottingham City Council has teamed up with developer of a huge city centre scheme to try and overturn a decision to grant listed status to a key city centre building.Grade II listed status was placed on Nottingham’s former fire and police station just days before the council’s planning committee were due to vote on a major redevelopment of the building. The move blocked the plans, which includes almost 1,000 student flats on the site of the former Central Police and Fire Station.Ancillary plans include a gym, a dance studio, co-study spaces, a cinema and a games room, as well as a public facing Market Food Hall with capacity for around 500 diners.Vita Group submitted plans last August to transform the former fire and police stations. The scheme was due to be voted on by Nottingham City Council’s planning committee on Wednesday January 18 – but the planning chief’s report was withdrawn at the last moment.Now, says the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the council has teamed prospective new owners to the Department for Media, Culture and Sport to try and reverse the listed status.The police and fire station have been vacant for around seven years.Vita had said that the development was designed to sit “sensitively” on Shakespeare Street, North Church Street and South Sherwood Street and would complement the existing plans already approved for a hotel on the site.