It seems that the sale of the Tapton Halls of Residence and Experimental Gardens site to Miller Homes may not now go ahead as the developer is getting cold feet over the project. If Miller Homes pull out the University intend to remarket the entire site to a new developer, who is likely to want to begin over with a new development scheme.
One might hope that the demise of the Miller Homes scheme would be an opportunity to do things better next time and to seriously consider alternatives for the site that might enable the community to realise our aspirations, while at the same time providing good value for the University. However there are no signs that the University are willing to consider their 'best value' responsibilities in anything other than purely financial terms. The uncertainty over the future of the site has even put our proposal to purchase Pisgah House as a community partnership on ice.
It is profoundly depressing to contemplate the prospect of fighting yet another inappropriate planning application for this site with a new developer. We can only hope that all the previous work that we have done has at least alerted the council planners to the importance of this site for our conservation area.
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