Proposals would have included replacement Travis Perkins branch
Westminster council has refused plans for a 20-storey student accommodation building designed by Make Architects for a second time.
Councillors voted to ignore a recommendation by the council’s planning officers to approve the 605-bedroom scheme in a committee meeting yesterday evening.
The proposals, designed for clients Unite Students and Travis Perkins, were for a canal-side site behind Paddington station and neighbouring Fletcher Priest’s Brunel Building.
They would have seen the demolition and replacement of an existing Travis Perkins branch on the site with the student accommodation scheme located above, along with a new canal path and public realm.
The council’s refusal comes three years after a larger scheme also designed by Make for the same clients was thrown out due to concerns over the building’s massing and its impact on nearby residents.
The original 2022 proposals, which had been recommended for refusal, would have contained 768 student rooms, down from 843 in an earlier 22-storey version of the scheme which had been amended prior to its committee hearing.
Although the latest scheme, submitted in May last year, had broken up the building into two main blocks on the advice of planning officers, it still received more than 100 objections from locals due to its height and scale.
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