I live in Crookesmoor, right on the corner next to the Halls of Residence that are in the old church. Opposite where the Glass Factory used to be.

They are now proposing to build 23 flats in the same place, the only place they could build it would be in the car park next to this beautiful old building.

At night, this building is lit up and is beautiful, you can see it as you come up the road from the arts tower (up the right hand side) if they build this block of flats, that view will be literally ruined.
They would have to build it on the car park, which would mean an extra ten cars that park in the car park, plus, the cars that come with the residents of the 23 flats, on the road. There's not space for this. We have a residents parking scheme and even with that we can't park outside our house. I'm disabled and have to park at the top of the hill. There's no way we could accomodate another 30 cars.

Does anyone live around here? Do you agree with my views? then please help! I know we need accomodation, but not here - it's impossible. You can oppose it!

I don't live here, but my business premises are nearby, on Barber Road, and I agree with you that the situation regarding student accommodation and the knock-on effect of cars and parking is well beyond a joke.

Have you noticed that there are plans to convert the church at the Barber Road/Crookesmoor Rd/Crookes Valley Road junction into something like EIGHTY student flats?! The same question of where will cars go needs to be answered before anything happens.

Barber Road and its side-streets aren't - as yet - part of a restricted area, but it is suffering from the knock-on (or rather, ripple) effect of the restrictions already in situ around the places you have mentioned, Northumberland Road, Moor Oaks Road etc.

As a resident, and certainly one with physical limitations, this must be a nightmare for you. For us as a business it is no laughing matter either.

I'm on your side and agree totally that in effect the area is Full Up. It's time to bring the barriers down on new accommodation and declare: NO MORE!!

thanks Ousetunes!

I agree, our residents parking is on Harcourt Road and Harcourt Crescent, but go down there and you'll see that most of them don't have permits anyway! I have to park up the road because of people without permits parking outside our house!

I didn't know about the 80 flats. We weren't told about that - normally we're sent a form asking for permission, or if we have objections but we haven't about that. I knew that the old church has been declared ruins as it's all falling in, but i'm sure it could be put to better use! I sometimes wonder why these areas that they want to build on (like the Glass Factory which was all knocked down and then refused planning permission - haha Prince Nazim!) aren't turned into carparks!!!! Surely, that would make much more sense. A car park on that Glass Factory would be a God send!!

I'll try and find out about the Crookesvalley Methodist Church and see if we can oppose it.

Thanks!

There are signs on the Methodist church, the one I noticed being visible as you approach from Harcourt/Crookes Valley. It say either 60 odd or 80 odd flats. There's certainly no parking for 80 odd cars round there.

May I enquire as to whether you've got your own designated space outside your home? That is, a painted area? Frank's got one on Bower Road - up by our shop and it's certainly HIS spot! Have you asked the council if they'll come and paint you one? Or are there problems with it already being a permit area?

Back onto the church; wouldn't it be nice if it could be converted into....a church! It's a huge building that could incorporate some good facilities for this region, sports clubs, social clubs and so on. It would be a welcome refuge where one could go for a bit of peace, away from the hassles of parking your car around this area!!!

It would be nice if it could be turned into a church! I don't have a very local church and would love to be able to go just down the road! (I'm looking for a new church)

We need to enquire about the painted area, I'm not sure yet though, I'm waiting for my blue badge to come through (I've only just got my car and am quite new to all this!)

I'm not sure if they'll do it in the permit area but we can all but try. We're hoping to get planning permission to put an extension on the house and a drive way! Wouldn't that be nice??! lol

Crookesmoor Methodist Church will have 18 (not 80) student flats - but no extra parking provision.

since when did 80 student flats mean 80 new car parking spaces would be needed. It's been 5 years since i was at uni, but then it wasn't even 1 in 10 students with cars...

If there's a problem with people parking where they shouldn't, why not deal with that instead of opposing new development?

Originally posted by Cyclone
since when did 80 student flats mean 80 new car parking spaces would be needed. It's been 5 years since i was at uni, but then it wasn't even 1 in 10 students with cars...


You wanna look around nowadays mate.. couple of houses I know of on my road have more than 1 car per house, majority being students. Parking is terrible in Crookes.

so next time i hear students whinging about 20k in debt when they leave uni i'll consider it all to be a lie!

And i'll be asking all the students at my club why out of 20 of them only 1 has a car, do I have all the poor students or something?

Originally posted by Cyclone
so next time i hear students whinging about 20k in debt when they leave uni i'll consider it all to be a lie!

And i'll be asking all the students at my club why out of 20 of them only 1 has a car, do I have all the poor students or something?

There's nine other students living with me currently, and 6 of them have cars. Out of the six living together next year, there are two cars, and out of my close friends currently, of about 8 people, 4 of them have cars. A large number, certainly more than 1 in 10, of the students I know have a car with them at Uni!

Do you pay for a parking permit? When I lived off Ecclesall Rd you had to pay for one, which then funded a traffic warden to book visitors who abused the scheme. It wasn't perfect, but it did help during the day as it cut down on office staff parking there which had been a big problem with Porterbrook House down the end of the road. Also, if you have to pay for a pass, then it makes people think twice about having more than one car per household parked on the road. Yes, a pain if you do have an additional works van or something, but in that case it's probably better to buy something with a drive anyway.

I was a student 16 years ago and in a house of 10, 3 of us had cars. Nowadays cars are dirt cheap, and make good sense compared to the price of train tickets for a student. Go and look round the Shoreham St area where the latest glut of flats are, and the street looks like an enormous car park.

I live near the area too and i'm with you on this, Lotti, the area is congested enough already and this would only add to the problems and spoil the view.

It's such a shame that governmet policy favours new build over refurbishment making it more economical to demolish old buildings like the glass works and build higher density appartments. At least they will have to keep the Methodist Church as it is listed.