Waterfront plan given approval. (Examiner)
Sept 26th 2008.
Kirklees Council’s Huddersfield Planning Sub-committee approved the Waterfront Quarter proposal yesterday.
Kirklees College has won permission to build a new campus on a triangle of land between Manchester Road, Chapel Hill and the River Colne.
The Waterfront Quarter plan, which also includes three blocks of flats and four offices buildings, will create 2,000 new jobs.
The site is currently used by Sellers Engineering and Acacia Timber.
Kirklees College – which was formed earlier this year by the merger of Huddersfield Technical College and Dewsbury College – wants to move to the Waterfront from its New North Road, Huddersfield, site.
A complex of college buildings is planned with a maximum height of 37 metres and including 10 parking spaces. The college is trying to secure more off-site parking.
There will be a public square in the middle of the campus and a towpath along Huddersfield Narrow Canal.
A further seven buildings are planned on the site. These include three apartment blocks with 309 flats.
The sub-committee yesterday gave outline planning permission for scale, access and layout.
The three 60-metre-long apartment blocks proposed would be ten, eleven and twelve storeys high at their prominent side next to the canal, with fewer storeys visible from Manchester Road on the hillside behind.
The blocks would have a maximum height of 36 metres and 375 parking spaces.
Four office buildings with a total of 233 parking spaces are also planned. One of the buildings would include a cafe and crèche.
Planning permission for the design of the buildings will be sought later.
Several councillors on the sub-committee expressed concerns about the plan.
Holme Valley North Lib Dem Clr David Woodhead said: “There will have to be some serious work done on the impact of this development on traffic on Manchester Road.”