Plans for Coventry’s skyline are changing as a new addition is expected

Plans for a new addition to Coventry’s skyline have changed. A block next to the ring road will no longer be 20 storeys at its highest point.

Instead, the 303-apartment development will reach a maximum of 17 storeys. The Paradise Street scheme will now be a single building rather than two blocks.

A so-called Section 73 planning variation application was approved by the council last week on May 31. It comes months after the initial scheme received approval from the authority.

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The redesign is due to impending new fire safety rules, according to a letter with the plans. Two staircases in apartments over 18 meters high will become mandatory by the government, the statement said.

The move was confirmed in a “recent announcement” by Secretary of State Michael Gove, it added. But the scheme approved in October does not include two stair cores for all floors.

Without that feature, the development is “unfundable,” added Marrons Planning’s letter on behalf of developers Rainier Developments. “This section 73 application addresses the need for the second ladder core,” it said.

The new building design includes the same number of apartments and some changes to floor plans and entrances. The “tower element” of the scheme has been dropped as it is “uneconomical and inefficient to deliver” under the rules, the letter added.

It concluded: “We remain committed to the redevelopment of this site and these changes will facilitate the granting of this planning permission.” The new plans will also have less impact on the historic city wall and buried medieval city defences, which were discovered two years ago, say those behind the scheme.

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More than 90% of defence-related archeology would be preserved by both schemes, a heritage statement said. It is not the first time a development in the city has had to be redesigned due to planned changes to fire safety rules.

The need for changes to some buildings delayed the City Center South scheme last year and detailed plans were only approved in March. The changes also affected the viability of the project and meant an additional £12m of funding from the West Midlands Combined Authority.

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