36-storey block of flats with gym and swimming pool could have just 18 parking spaces

One councillor said the idea was “nonsensical” given levels of car usage. Developers City Life Holdings want to create the supersize residential development, which would include a private gym and swimming pool, on Springwell Road in Holbeck, close to Leeds centre.

No planning application has been submitted yet, but the provisional designs for the building were shown to councillors at a plans panel on Thursday.

But several panel members hit out at the perceived lack of parking space the early plans include.

Councillor Paul Wray, who represents a city centre ward which neighbours Holbeck, said the numbers would exclude a lot of families and older people from living there.

He said: “If you restrict spaces so severely, that then starts creating an unsustainable community with a high turnover. Unless we’re intentionally designing this to be a space for younger, more mobile people without a car and therefore creating a development which is intrinsically unsustainable, 18 car parking spaces is ridiculous.

He later added: “For a development this size, 18 spaces is just nonsensical and it’s just not sustainable in the long-term.”

Councillor Wray said he was aware of “numerous conflicts” between neighbours at other city centre developments where parking space was also limited. The meeting was told that the development could legally have up to 280 parking spaces alongside the flats. But representatives of City Life at the meeting insisted the proposed numbers would be adequate.

Andrew Windress, from the consultancy ID Planning said: “We’ve heard from a lot of developers that the spaces in their buildings are just hired out to commuters, because the residents aren’t using them. It’s possibly a generational thing and perhaps an acceptance that if you live in the city centre you don’t tend to drive.”

The proposed height of the building also came in for criticism and was described by two councillors as “overbearing”.

The architect behind the designs however, Nick Brown, described the building as “tall, slender and attractive” and said its appearance was supposed to complement the city centre landscape. Should the scheme go ahead, it would mark the second phase of development on the proposed site in Springwell Road. A sloping residential block has already been built there.