Prince Bishops – Update
Update regarding the proposed redevelopment of Prince Bishops Place Shopping Centre in Durham, which was granted planning permission in July 2024.
Public drop-in event in Unit 10 (former animal charity) at Prince Bishops Place on Thursday 5th February 17:30-20:00.
The approved scheme proposed the partial demolition of the existing shopping centre at mall level and above, with the exception of the service cores, the present ‘Next’ retail unit on the corner of High Street and Market Place, and the two existing three-storey office blocks which terminate onto Saddler Street. The project retained retail and leisure uses at “mall” level with a new public square and above this student housing over 2-3 storeys.
Since obtaining planning permission, Citrus has been working hard with their partners to realise a deliverable scheme and can now proceed with the redevelopment.
This means a number of minor changes are now proposed to the approved scheme, which require a new planning application. These include the replacement of the approved hotel with student accommodation, as well as minor alterations to the external façades of the development.
Ahead of the submission of this application, Citrus would like to discuss the latest plans with stakeholders and will be hosting a public drop-in event in Unit 10 (former animal charity) at Prince Bishops Place on Thursday 5th February 17:30-20:00.
So the destruction of Durham City continues! How can removing the only department store in the city to replace it with a small hotel and then to replace that before it is even operational with the ‘minor amendment’ of more student accommodation to replace it help the remaining council tax paying resident of the city?
So begins the inevitable watering down of the design and quality of the scheme following the initial,planning permission. Why is it that developers don’t achieve a financially viable scheme and then brief the architect accordingly as opposed the other way round or am I asking too much. The architect simply achieves planning consent, the developer promising the Council everything they could possibly wish for only for it to be watered down to a boring and cheaper scheme to develop? It would have been easy you would have thought to secure a hotel operator at the outset rather than see the usual and seemingly only viable solution, student housing, being its replacement. I’m sure there are many viable proposals which would see this scheme and others like get off the ground except none seem to be the best solution when coming up against the option for student accommodation. When will the Council find a solution to the ongoing disintergration of our City? I have no problem with modern, safe, warm and well designed student accommodation but due to a static number of students in the city the same number of proposed student beds should be removed from the cities housing stock enabling families, starter home owners to live in the city close to facilities, transport links etc and be able to access these in sustainable ways.