A Bristol developer has said his plans to build a block of student flats in the heart of Bedminster could actually help to reduce the impact of students moving into the neighbourhood.
David Fitter is the director of Paragon Developments, the company behind plans to demolish a decades-old business on West Street to build a three-storey block of flats for 50 students.
He told Bristol Live that the plans could help the local area by reducing the number of students living in Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMOs) on residential streets.
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He said: "If there's no purpose built accommodation for them, they generally live in these HMO converted houses.
"It takes houses out of the local stock, so a normal family can't go and live there which brings up prices as well.
"So you can actually increase the amount of traditional stock of houses by keeping the students all in special purpose built accommodation."
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Creating student accommodation can sometimes create controversy among permanent residents, and in Bedminster there are already plans for hundreds of new student flats as part of the Bedminster Green development.
But Mr Fitter points out that Bristol City Council's planning guidance says that when considering a HMO licence, the authority will consider "the extent of concentration of purpose-built student accommodation bed spaces in the local area compared to the citywide average".
So he says that building a large block of student flats can ultimately lead to a smaller number of HMOs in an area.
Decades-old business sold for flats
Paragon Developments is hoping to get permission to demolish used car dealership Paramount Cars, which was established in 1976, to build the student flats.
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Mr Fitter says they bought the building at 157-165 West Street, as well as the vacant industrial unit at number 155, after the owner of Paramount Cars decided to sell the business and retire.
"The owner is of retirement age and so he wants to step back. I think they only have one employee on the site now so I think it's running quite slowly and so he wanted to sell the site," he said.
As part of the new plans, students will not be allowed to bring cars on to the site - a rule that will be written into their tenancy agreements.
And Mr Fitter says he is confident they will be able to enforce this rule.
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"People generally follow rules. Obviously you have a small portion who don't, so if you stipulate something in a contract which they sign, people will then follow that rule.
"Obviously a student could hide their car round the corner, but the building will have CCTV," he said.
And he added that students won't be able to get a parking permit for other areas of Bedminster either.
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The developers are currently consulting residents on the plans before submitting an application to the council in February.
He says construction of the building should take about 10 months when and if planning permission is granted, and that "we don't envisage any blocking or reducing of road space" during this time.
And he added that the current consultation will have "quite a lot" of impact on the final plans - although it may not affect whether the accommodation goes to students.
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He said: "I know that can be slightly contentious, so we're doing all we can to take on board what people are saying, their issues with it and trying to resolve them.
"But everything else - how it will look, people's concerns with the environment - these will be very much included."
And he added that he doesn't think the flats will create noise and disruption for locals as much as a HMO might because it can be "monitored and managed much better" by having staff on site.
The consultation period runs until Friday, January 28. Neighbours can leave thoughts and read more about the proposals by clicking here.
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