8 floor hotel in Station Road defeated Posted:16/02/2010 14:50:22
Following protests from the Residents Association, plans for an eight floor hotel in Station Road were unanimously rejected by the City Planning Committee last Wednesday 10th February. The revised proposal from Dublin based O'Callaghan Hotels included 169 bedrooms but just three car parking spaces.
The proposal in Station Road, on the site of a small former Network Rail office close to the junction with Tenison Road, is the only part of the Station area not included in the Ashwell (now Brookgate) plans for CB1.
The first plan on this site was in 2001 for a 5 floor office block, then in 2003 it was a 6 floor block of flats, then in 2006 a 7 floor hotel.
In an unusual and surprise move the committee rejected a recommendation from Planning Officers that the scheme should be approved. The new hotel plans would have replaced an earlier planning consent granted in 2006 for a 149 bed hotel, seven floor hotel, (two of them below ground level) with 38 underground on site car parking spaces.
GTARA secretary spoke at the meeting and urged Councillors to reject the scheme. O’Callaghan have five hotels in Dublin where they take guests’ cars and park them at a remote location for a large fee. In this plan they proposed a costly valet service to use just 15 spaces to be allotted in the multi storey car park in the Cambridge Leisure Site on Cherry Hinton Road adding to our Hills Road bridge traffic problems. The Association argued that guests would use adjoining residential streets instead where residents already have parking problems.
We also argued that the building was a ugly intrusion into the local skyline, a view echoed by the City Council Conservation Office who also opposed the scheme. Thankfully Councillors have at last stood up the developers and said no more inappropriate nibbling at the skyline of our City.
