'Studentville' fears as Shrewsbury's university moves in

Shropshire Council has been asked to look at housing after complaints that parts of Chester have been taken over by students.

University Centre Shrewsbury is due to open later this year, but councillors have been told that house prices and rents in the town are already rising.

Shropshire Council has set up a group to look at its student accommodation strategy for Shrewsbury, including whether it should issue a directive so householders would need planning permission to use their properties for multiple-occupancy lets. At the moment only those properties for six or more people need permission.

Councillor Charlotte Barnes told yesterday's enterprise and growth scrutiny committee: "In the Garden Quarter of Chester, 85 per cent of the properties have become multiple occupancy dwellings and it is now referred to as studentville. We can't allow areas of Shrewsbury to get like that."

Andy Evans, the council's head of economic growth and prosperity, said some students would be housed in the university's own accommodation.

The top floors of Mardol Head, next to the Market Hall, are being converted to provide 80 student units, he said.

He said Shropshire Council is talking to an unnamed, preferred partner, about providing a further 800 units in the next three years, at sites that have yet to be named. But he accepted that students would also move into privately owned homes that had been converted for multiple occupancy.

Councillor Alan Mosley said there were worries that areas such as Castlefields, Frankwell, Greenfields and Belle Vue could be adversely affected.

"Students move in, families move out, more students move in. Shops close, the community is lost and affordable housing is lost," he said.