Grand plans to redevelop the old Yorkshire Evening Post site in Leeds into more than 2,000 residential and student flats have been approved in principle.
City councillors gave the green light for three separate blocks to be be built on the now derelict site, off Wellington Road in the city centre, where the YEP and its sister title, the Yorkshire Post, ran for decades. The site has been derelict since the two daily newspapers upped sticks and moved to a new office on Whitehall Road in 2014.
Developers have confirmed the old tower bearing the mastheads of both the EP and YP, which was retained after the old office was demolished, will be taken down. But they’ve committed to restoring and re-erecting the emblems in some form on the site on a top of a new column. That could be done either by refurbishing the current logos, which are somewhat worn and aged, or by creating new copies of them.
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The site’s old digital clock and temperature gauge will also be resurrected, to the delight of traditionalists. Under the current plans, the three blocks would be 42, 32 and 25 storeys in height and would feature 2,130 apartments between them.
Most of the flats on offer will be purpose-built student accommodation, though the 25-storey building will feature 348 one, two and three-bed residential apartments. A new attractive public realm space, with 70 new trees, will be cultivated between the blocks too.
Councillors gave the scheme outline planning permission at a meeting on Thursday, with the finer details to be brought back for scrutiny at a later date. Meanwhile, a working group will be set up to look at how the clock tower head can be restored.
Councillor Asghar Khan told the meeting the newspaper logos were “iconic” and a “welcome home” beacon for people driving back into the city. He later added: “I know the clock tower has been there for 52 years. I can’t tell you how well loved it is. For me it needs to have Yorkshire Evening Post at the top of it and be visible from the main road.”
Speaking on behalf of applicants Urbanite, James Beynon said: “The developer completely agrees with you. We recognise the iconic nature of the clock tower. The structure itself holding it up has to come down, for wind mitigation purposes. Until it comes down and we look at it, we don’t what condition it’s in and whether or not we can reuse it.”
Mr Beynon said options included reusing parts of the masthead, such as the lettering, or creating a new carbon copy of it. He added: “We’d like to do some sort of reinvention. Nothing is off the table at this moment in time, but we’d like it to be reused or reinvented in some possible way.”
One issue which split councillor opinion was whether or not digital advertising should be emblazoned on the tower, when it is restored. The council’s design officer, Steve Varley, came out strongly against the idea.
He said: “I know the pressure the applicant will come under because that is the visual spot in Leeds. The money they’ll be offered will be tremendous, but I’m sorry, I don’t want that to happen. That would be a bad thing.”
Several elected members did express concern about wind issues around the site, after previous plans for a hotel were abandoned because its design was deemed incompatible with the climate.
Councillors referenced the wind tunnel effect around Bridgewater Place, which was built on the other side of the city centre in 2005. High-speed winds at the base of the building were blamed for the death of a passing pedestrian two years later.
Planning officers, however, insisted they were confident there would be no such issues with this development.
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