As city centre residential developers are discovering across the U.K., if their block poses a real or imagined threat to noisy local nightlife it will run into serious trouble.
A dispute has now been averted in Birmingham's Southside. Earlier this summer city councillors insisted that Galliard Homes and Apsley House Capital, developers of the 379-unit Timber Yard scheme, provide guarantees that popular venues like the Village Inn and the venerable Nightingale Club would not be harmed by noise complaints from their new residential neighbours.
The developers offered additional soundproofing and air conditioning, allowing apartment windows to be sealed shut. However, the dispute reached the point that in June a member of the council's planning committee temporarily resigned so that he could continue to fight the plan for a vacant car park lot at Hurst and Pershore streets.
A planning committee meeting deferred a decision. It was a clear 1-0 win for the village of a kind the local gay-friendly rugby club, the Birmingham Bulls, would surely have been proud.
The re-match between the gay village and Galliard Homes has now taken place, and this time it was an honourable score-draw.
The developers have confirmed their intention to instal high performance double glazing of the same kind used next to airport runways, which is quite a compliment to the noise-generating possibilities of the LGBT community. Windows facing the clubs and bars will be sealed. In return village businesses have withdrawn their application and the project won the support of councillors, the Birmingham Post reports.
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