Plans to fit more rooms into Bristol’s first major ‘co-living’ tower block have been put on hold amid concerns that it is a ‘recipe for disaster’ for residents’ mental health. The city council’s development control committee voted 6-2 to defer a bid by the developers to scrap the communal kitchens and dining areas on each floor and make the occupants go to the 16th and 17th levels where the shared spaces would now be.
Work is taking place on the huge new complex, which also includes student flats in buildings between 15 and 28 storeys, on the site of the Premier Inn next to the Bearpit roundabout in the city centre. The developers, Olympian Homes, applied to vary a number of conditions that came with planning permission granted last year by the committee.
These included increasing the number of rooms from 132 to 150 in the co-living building and removing its proposed balconies. Planning officers had recommended approving the changes.
The applicants’ planning agent Craig O’Brien told the meeting on Wednesday, January 22: “The changes are largely internal. The changes proposed include additional smoke shafts required by law and recent fire regulations.
“These smoke shafts have reduced the size of the shared kitchens/diners on each floor, making them much less usable, so instead we propose to use those spaces as studios and relocate that space, dedicating the entire 16th and 17th floors to much larger shared spaces including kitchens for communal dining. The Health and Safety Executive has agreed to this change.”
But Cllr Serena Ralston (Green, Clifton Down) said: “I’m not very impressed with this. This is a very disingenuous attempt to squeeze in 18 more units.
Sign up to receive daily news updates and breaking news alerts straight to your inbox for free here.
“I’m really concerned that all the amenity space is going to be on the top floors, so everyone is going to have to make their way up to those floors. There will be no amenity space on individual floors which is going to be very isolating.
“So this is quite a major change. I don’t think this is minor and I’m not happy.”
Cllr Zoe Peat (Labour, Avonmouth & Lawrence Weston) said: “The loss of amenity is huge. There’s a huge risk that the kitchens will become overcrowded.
“Is it really fair to make someone with a disability go up to the top floor just to make their dinner? The more people you put in an environment, the more you’re going to have differences.
“You don’t know who you’re going to go into this with. It’s a recipe for disaster.”
Cllr Al Al-Maghrabi (Labour, Frome Vale) said: “I’m a firm believer in quality over quantity and it’s not fair to squeeze small families into such tight compartments. I’ve lived in dorms where eight people had to share a kitchen and it’s not a good time, it’s not fun.
“What tends to happen is that people use each other’s stuff and they don’t ask and it creates quite a toxic environment.” Cllr Guy Poultney (Green, Cotham) said: “I worry about a point where someone has to get in a lift to go and use a kitchen.
“The loss of the balconies is huge. I’m worried about the space standards and the idea that someone might be stuck in what is quite a small space and the only retreat is a communal area on a different floor that they share with a significant number of people.
“I am genuinely concerned about the effect of this on the mental health of the people living in this building.” A Bristol City Council planning officer told councillors: “There has been some confusion here.
“The co-living block is individual studios and each will have its own private kitchen, so there will be no need for anyone to get to a kitchen. It will be small but they will have individual kitchens, and there will be additional communal kitchens.”
Cllr Richard Eddy (Conservative, Bishopsworth) said: “This is quite a modest proposal. It wouldn’t cause a significant difficulty.
“With their legal requirement it makes sense for the committee to support it. This applicant has got planning consent and has actually got on with demolition work.
“If we turn down this very minimal proposal, we risk delaying that positive development.” The committee voted 6-3 against the officer recommendation before voting 6-2, with one abstention, in favour of Cllr Poultney’s motion to defer the application so officers could work with the developers to address members’ concerns and arrange to visit a co-living development to see one for themselves.
The decision does not affect the original planning permission.
Try BristolLive Premium for FREE without intrusive ads and brilliant new features
No intrusive adverts, pop-ups or distractions! Just our brilliant content presented in the best way possible.
Get your free one-month trial by visiting the ‘Premium’ tab on the BristolLive app now (auto renews annually at £19.99).
If you haven’t got it already, get started by downloading our app here on iPhone or here on Android. If you already have the app but can’t see the ‘Premium’ section, you’ll need to check for the latest update. More info here.