By Andrew Waller, 14 May 2026

 

Harringay Real Estate has now formally submitted its planning application to convert the former St Joseph’s care home at Cotham Hill into student accommodation. The number of proposed bed spaces is 132, one more than the number trailed in its pre-submission public consultation.

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Details of the application can be seen on Bristol City Council’s planning website.
For reference, the application number is 26/11841/F.
 

The application consists of 58 documents, all uploaded on 30 April. There are several documents of major interest in terms of how Harringay and Savills (acting as agent) lay out their case for the application. For now, I’ll highlight just three:
 

• Planning Statement (50 pages) — the main document.

• Student Accommodation Needs Assessment (43 pages) — lots of facts, figures and colourful charts on why Bristol needs more PBSA.

• Community Involvement Statement (32 pages) — reproduces in full the public responses received to Harringay’s questionnaire on its St Joseph’s website.

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Sticking briefly with the last of those, Harringay’s PR consultants, Sulis, say the website received 2,287 visits by 678 unique individuals, of whom 86 (12%) submitted responses that mostly opposed the plans. It is noted that “there was a significant uptick in these negative consultation responses following coverage of the proposals in an anti-student online blog, the Noise Pages.”

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I’m flattered, but my views went online only two days before the consultation closed. From this and other comments, it appears Harringay/Savills don’t understand that there is a network of residents’ associations in this area who are well organised and experienced in dealing with planning matters.

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(I am not anti-student, and nor are the associations. I am against anti-social noise—which in this area is unfortunately mostly associated with students. Also, like most residents, I want to live in a mixed and balanced community.)

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In addition to the planning documents on the BCC website, Harringay has also updated its own St Joseph’s website: https://stjosephscothamhill.com/index.php.

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I will look in more detail at the application documents in future posts. I’m assuming residents will have some weeks in which to register comments on the BCC application page (see link in the second paragraph, above). ​

 

Related articles:

• ‘We don’t need more student housing’—Some residents are strongly opposed to the plan

• St Joseph’s ... meet Woodland Court—Why Harringay may face planning hurdles 

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