Block the Block have launched a fundraising campaign to challenge Manchester City Council's decision to approve a controversial student accommodation development in Hulme.
Block the Block argues that this decision was made unlawfully and now need to raise £10,000 to cover adverse legal costs as they prepare to take the council to the High Court.
After four previous rejections, Manchester City Council has approved plans by private developers, Curlew Alternatives Eighth Property LP, to build a 9-storey student accommodation block on the site of the former Gamecock pub in Hulme. Despite four refusals, the Council allowed the developers to present their case on five separate occasions.
With the support of the Public Interest Law Centre and Greater Manchester Law Centre, the group plans to challenge the council's decision on the following grounds:
- Planning officers told the committee that there was no lawful reason for them to refuse the application, and that if they did want to refuse, they would have to be 'minded to' refuse again. This was wrong. Planning committees always have the power to refuse
- Planning officers seriously misled the committee - they said they could not refuse the application again.
- Planning officers failed to give reasons for deviating from a decision to refuse planning permission for a similar project on the same site in 2012. Planning law states that a local planning authority must show consistency in their decision-making
Residents in Hulme have been fighting to stop profit-hungry developers from encroaching on their community for many years. They already have a plan for the site that includes a social centre and social housing to serve the existing community. If the approved development goes through, their plan will be redundant.
Block the Block is calling out for supporters to donate to their fundraising campaign and share their appeal. The funds raised will protect the resident bringing the case from potential adverse legal costs.
Please share the campaign and donate whatever you can at https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/help-hulme-take-manchester-city-council-to-court/
Quotes from the campaigners:
“It's really important for all of Manchester and other cities that this development isn't allowed to happen. What they get away with here will send a signal to other developers that our communities are fair game”
“We were astonished when the Planning Committee went back on its previous view on this proposal. It feels like somebody bent the rules to get this through."
"Hulme residents have been fighting to stop profit-hungry developers from encroaching on their community for many years. They already have a plan that includes a social centre and social housing to serve the existing community. We need the decision to build student accommodation here to be quashed, so that the community plan can be re-platformed as an alternative for the site.”
“I have nothing against students - but we are losing our sense of community as students are transient and leave when their studies finish.”
“In reaching this decision Manchester City Council has effectively circumvented due process and left residents feeling disenfranchised from planning decisions"