A new apartment block near Preston’s University Square is set to be approved.

Portergate Developments are seeking permission to build on a patch of land between Moor Lane and Walker Street, on the corner of the Adelphi Square.

A 19-storey and five-storey building would add to the skyline around the University of Central Lancashire campus.

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Housing 120 apartments, a communal lounge, cycle parking and new access roads.

The 19-storey tower would have 84 apartments and the five-storey podium 36 apartments.

There would be 16 one-bed flats with 104 two-bedroom flats.

Planning documents state they would be residential apartments and would be “100 per cent open market” meaning anyone could rent them, not just students.

The patch of land has been empty following demolition of a gas training centre in 2017 and before that withdrawn plans in 2008 wanted to build a mix of retail and apartments on the site, along with a new bar at ground-floor level.

Two letters of objection were received saying the application is ‘out of keeping with other low-level apartment blocks’ and there’s an ‘impact on highway safety’.

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Planning officers at Preston City Council have recommended the scheme for approval ‘subject to a Section 106 obligation being secured to provide a mechanism to allow the viability of the scheme to be reassessed, a minimum covenant of 30 years for the open market build to rent units and a clawback mechanism in the event any build to rent units are sold within the covenant period.”

Councillors are due to meet on Thursday (6 July) to consider the plans.

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