The Plaza Site (Between the Portsmouth Rd and Bury St) 21/P/01811, has now been submitted as a development of ‘Co-Living Accommodation. The Society will be reviewing and commenting to the planning application in detail shortly.
Two aspects are of interest as they may affect plans for St Marys’s Wharf/Debenhams and redevelopment of the Friary North Street Site.
The new building proposed is planned to handle an increase of hotter summers/heat waves, with the impact on the thermal comfort of the occupants. Heat will be controlled by the use of MVHCR (Mechanical Ventilation with Heat/Cooling Recovery) units in all bedrooms/studios. These units can act as coolers or heaters by reversing the flow of air across the in-built heat exchanger. This ensures the building temperature remains comfortable from January, right through to December. This ventilation works in conjunction with low g-value glazing (0.40) and blinds, which will considerably decrease solar radiation.
Water heating will use energy-efficient ASHP (Air Source Heat Pumps) to provide minimum 60% of heating and domestic hot water demand.
The developers are concerned that mechanical ventilation systems could pump in polluted air. The Plaza site is in a area where there are concerns that pollution will exceed safe limits especially for NO2. It is proposed to site the intakes for the ventilation systems as high as possible e.g. over 4M above ground level and locate them carefully to minimise this hazard. Some intakes may have to be equipped with NOx filters.
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The Weyside development is due to be discussed at a planning meeting 20th October, it will be interesting to see if principles that appear to be adopted by the Plaza developers are also considered by GBC.
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