Conveyancing in Leicester Update - Local residents object to new student flats

As a potential buyer in the area will discover during their Conveyancing in Leicester, local residents may be adversely affected by developer’s proposals to build a massive student accommodation complex with a drive-through restaurant. Jamie Lewis Residential of 40-46 Western Road, Leicester, LE3 0GH has recently lodged an application for permission from the city council to demolish a Victorian factory, in Upperton Road, and build 731 student rooms in buildings up to eight storeys high. The development would also include a drive-through restaurant, food shop, gym and car park.

If approved, the new rooms and additional facilities would be incorporated into a 470-room scheme on land off Upperton Road which is already under way. The plans would entail the demolition of a former wagon repair works for the Great Central Railway.

The Leicester Mercury reports a spokesman for the Upperton Road Area Residents' Association as saying: "It would be a shame to lose yet another historic building to yet more purpose-built student accommodation, which is not needed. The applicants appear to have a complete disregard for local people. These plans seem to be ridiculous, especially in regard to the current climate.”

A spokesman for the city council is also quoted as saying "What the developer is now doing is adding amendments to the previously approved development which is under construction."  Further information will be required before the council can start considering the scheme. Any buyer in the immediate area whose Conveyancing in Leicester is underway, should confirm with their Conveyancing Solicitor that this new information has been taken into account.

Leicester Council building to be demolished

A Leicester city council building, housing 125 staff, is to be demolished due to a risk of collapse. Concrete crash barriers have been put up around Marlborough House, a 1970s office block in Welford Road, because of fears that a car hitting the column outside the main entrance could trigger a collapse. The building will be vacated by the council's children's services department in November so that it can be safely demolished.

Marlborough House was bought by the city council as an investment in 1988 for £831,000. Other tenants were then in occupation, but council staff have occupied the building since 1998.

It appears that the council has had structural reports on the building and Alistair Reid, Leicester City Council's strategic director of development, culture and regeneration, is quoted as saying that the building had "fundamental design faults" when it was built in 1972.

Unfortunately, it is not totally uncommon for Solicitors Conveyancing in Leicester and across Leicestershire to have to inform their clients of similar issues. The buyer may wish to go ahead with the purchase despite such a report, but it would usually be against the Solicitor's advice if the structural flaws are as bad as those suffered in this case by the local authority.