A CONSERVATION group has condemned revised plans to turn a former psychiatric hospital into student accommodation.

The City of Durham Trust says Peveril Securities’ multi-million pound plans for the former County Hospital, off North Road, Durham, would lead to a massive over-concentration of students in the area.

Peveril Securities has applied for planning permission to convert and extend the original Victorian hospital buildings, demolish two later extensions and build two new blocks, altogether creating 364 bedrooms.

The scheme is slightly scaled back from an earlier version thrown out by councillors last July.

In a letter of objection to Durham County Council, Dr Douglas Pocock, honorary secretary of the City of Durham Trust, says the new scheme, which would reach seven storeys in height, would be harmful to the Durham conservation area.

Further, building student accommodation would not maximise the sustainability of the site, he says.

Dr Pocock calls on the authority to delay any decision on the application until planning inspector Harold Stephens has published his interim report on the soundness of the County Durham Plan, which is expected next month.

That demand echoes the overwhelming feeling of a well-attended public meeting held in Durham Town Hall on Thursday night (January 22).

Peveril says the scale and massing of the scheme has been reduced and the reasons for July’s decision have been addressed.

More information on the application can be found online at durham.gov.uk/planning, using the reference DM/14/03694/FPA.

The council aims to take the scheme to a planning committee for a decision by Thursday, March 12.