Campus Living Villages wants to knock down two 15-storey blocks built in the 1960s and build a pair of 28-storey towers off Belvedere Road in Pendleton.

Early-stage proposals to demolish the Eddie Coleman Court and John Lester Court student blocks and more than double the scheme’s density to 1,585 units have been submitted to Salford City Council.

Campus Living Villages, which acquired the 2.2-acre site in 2009 and last year set about working up plans for its redevelopment.

The scheme unveiled last year proposed retaining the existing buildings and extending them upwards. A new-build 24-storey tower was also proposed. This development would have increased the number of student beds on the site from 700 to 1,400.

However, those plans were ripped up following “negative feedback”, according to a planning statement by consultancy WSP.

The revised proposals would see the existing buildings flattened. They are described by WSP as “dated and unable to provide the quality of accommodation expected by students”.

The first of two 28-storey towers built in their stead would comprise 810 student bedrooms and be located on the eastern portion of the site. The second, to the west, would house up to 675 apartments. A third, six-storey building would feature another 100 flats.

The proposed development has been designed to “revitalise the site and provide an enhanced and improved offering of much-needed student bedrooms for the University of Salford,” according to WSP.

Sheffield-based Hadwell Cawkwell Davidson is the architect for the scheme. The development is located close to Salford Shopping Centre and Donard Affordable Homes’ plans for Albion Court, the 261-home redevelopment of the Buzz Bingo site on the opposite side of Belvedere Road.

To learn more, search for reference number OTH/2024/0960 on Salford City Council’s planning portal.