The Trust has responded in the detail to the current consultation on the university masterplan from 2020. We have had considerable and well publicised concerns regarding the flurry of purpose built student accommodation (PBSA) applications coming forward in the last few years on the city’s brownfield sites. Therefore our primary issue regarding the masterplan is the absence of numbers. The masterplan did not include any data on the university’s growth targets and any statistics on how many students the university is looking to accommodate on campus and how many will need to find off-campus accommodation (this figure currently stands at 18% of students housed on campus). Clearly these numbers must come before and inform any type of forward planning about development on campus.
We are clear in saying that if the university wishes to achieve growth targets that will impact on the available land in the city earmarked to contribute for strategic growth (housing and employment) then the university must:
- shoulder a considerable burden of development on campus (i.e. intensify the built campus) and/or
- temper those growth targets according to what the city can accommodate without the population or land use of the city becoming skewed and the balance of communities being impacted negatively.
One particular form of development we would wish to see is low-rise accommodation built over car parks; using the air space within the campus. The university is already suggesting decked car parking and this is only a small logical jump. You can read our detailed response here: Response to University Masterplan consultation March 2018