People have had their say after the next stage of plans for Nottingham's huge Island Quarter development were approved by Nottingham City Council. Some expressed fears that Nottingham is "starting to look like Benidorm" as the plans which would see an 18-storey hotel complex built were granted permission - with others excited for the now derelict land to be put to good use.
As well as the hotel, the plans would also include a further 10 storey high development with 247 build-to-rent apartments. This would comprise of 86 two-bed apartments, 154 one-bed apartments and seven studio apartments and a podium roof terrace.
There would also be a range of food and drink outlets for use by residents and the public as part of the development, to be named collectively as the ‘Forum’. This space is also intended to accommodate a food market, which would include dining space, fixed and ‘pop-up’ food and drinks.
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In Nottingham near the site, residents gave their thoughts on whether they were happy to hear the new hotel and other developments would be built - with some excited for the planned changes, with others concerned about the size of the proposed building.
Rose and Ron Blewitt, 70, who are both retired, said: “There’s lots of regeneration stuff around here and I don’t think it’s a particularly bad thing. The flats are ok as long as they are affordable for the normal person.
“[18] storeys is a lot, it’s starting to look like Benidorm around here. The Virgin Active building has real character so I hope this fits in with it and has some character as well. One good thing about it is that it will create jobs.
Kevin Ward, 42, civil servant, said: “It’s a good use an area that has been derelict for so long. It’s really nice to see something made out of brick rather than metal and glass like most new things.
“It will be good to have some bars and restaurants in this part of the city because we don’t really have any at the moment. I’d question whether we need more apartments because I don’t think we are making the best use of the ones we have got.
“They should really make them affordable for normal people. They’ll have to think about the traffic because it gets busy with rush hour anyway. So often with these sort of developments they don’t think about the infrastructure which they really should do”
Dan Wrigley, a 36-year-old civil servant, said: “They should really do the listed warehouse up first because that’s an eye-sore at the moment and you could make it nice.
“I think the location is a bit odd to have such a big building going in here I’m not really sure about. It’s hard to fully know what I think about it until I see it fully finished.
Jon Soar, 76, who is retired, told Nottinghamshire Live: “I’m all for it, the city needs it. I used to work in the Boots buildings near here so I’m familiar with the area. It needs to be done nicely though. I think that anything that improves this area and the city in turn I’m all for."
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