A plan to build more student flats above a city centre supermarket has been revealed.
The move would see 18 new student flats built above Tesco Express in Foregate Street, Worcester.
The floors above the supermarket are already home to 28 student flats with more set to be built under plans to add two more storeys to the building by applicant YABC.
A statement included with the application said: “The proposed extension has been carefully considered to ensure that that there would be no detrimental impact on the character and appearance of the building, the street nor the conservation area.
“The overall height of the building as extended would be slightly taller than the neighbouring buildings but by virtue of the design and choice or materials it is not considered that the building would appear dominant or incongruous.”
In June, a move was made to allow an empty multi-million-pound student accommodation block in the city centre to be opened up to young adults in supported living.
The four-storey 83-bed Sansome Hall in Sansome Walk, Worcester, which was built in 2008 as student accommodation, has been left mostly empty because of a stipulation that means only students can rent rooms in the building.
The building has since been sold – and was last listed with a guide price of £3.5m.
London-based Marson Property, self-referred to in the application as a ‘potential buyer’ for the city centre building, wants to scrap a rule included in the original planning permission from 2007 which limits tenants to only those in full-time education at either college or university.
And last month, the 48-room Court Mews in nearby Farrier Street was put up for sale for around £3 million.
A controversial plan to turn the student halls into what would have been the city’s biggest homeless shelter was rejected by Worcester City Council in 2022 over anti-social behaviour and safeguarding fears.
Councillors also ruled it would be inappropriate to build the shelter in the city centre next to several restaurants and nightclubs and the then recently renovated railway arches.
Manchester-based Grolar Developments then lodged an appeal with the government’s planning inspectorate hoping to get the decision overturned, but it was rejected again.
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