Manchester councillors have moved to block proposals for a Simpson Haugh-designed 34-storey residential development earmarked for the site of a surface car park a stone’s throw from the city’s Piccadilly Station.

The practice’s proposals for the 0.54ha plot in Port Street would deliver 485 homes for client Affinity Living in a scheme that also includes seven- , nine- and 11-storey elements.

But members of the city council’s planning and highways committee last week said they were “minded to refuse” the proposals, citing concerns about the scale of the scheme and its impact on the Ancoats and Stevenson Square conservation areas.

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