LEEDS: Plans for 900 flats over five buildings in Hunslet to go before councillors

Leeds City Council’s city plans panel will discuss blueprints for 928 apartments to be built over five buildings of 6-20 storeys in Hunslet.

Plans also include ground floor commercial uses, car parking and public realm improvements.

The development would take place on a former industrial site in Hunslet Road.

Block one would consist of 127 flats facing Black Bull Street. It would be part eight, part 12 storeys. Block two would be a part six, part eight storey building of 166 flats.

Block three would be on the south-eastern side of Chadwick Street and wrap around the junction of Sayner Road and Hunslet Road. It would include 194 flats. It would be part six, eight, nine and 10 storeys in height.

Block four would face onto Chadwick Street and the junction with Armouries Drive. It would feature 210 flats, a gym and a café.

Block five would sit at the junction of Sayner Road, Chadwick Street South

and Armouries Drive, and would include a 20-storey glass tower, providing 231 flats.

Leeds City Council hopes to attract investment to regenerate the area south of the river Aire in the centre of the city, known as the South Bank development plan.

A report into the plans suggests: “In summary, it is considered that the proposal is in accordance with adopted Development Plan policy and would contribute towards the delivery of much-needed new dwellings in the City Centre on a long-standing brownfield site, and deliver a number of place-making, public realm, connectivity and regeneration benefits for the South Bank.”

Such is the scale of the development, the panel is expected to recommend that applicants X1 Developments Ltd pay for improvements to the wider community.

These would include contributing £229,680 to a residential travel fund public access through the site and a cooperation with local jobs and skills initiatives.

According to the council’s planning rules, as the site is near the city centre, it only needs five percent of the homes to be classed as affordable – this would work out at less than 50 of the 928 flats.

The panel is expected to delegate a decision to a planning officer, who would make a decision on the site later in the year.