HUNDREDS of student homes will be built next to a busy road.

Planners yesterday approved the development on the car park on the corner of King’s Mill Lane and Wakefield Road in Aspley.

The Watkin Jones Group will build five blocks ranging from two to five storeys which will house 380 students.

Kirklees Council’s Huddersfield Planning Sub-committee approved the plan at a meeting at Huddersfield Town Hall.

However, some councillors are concerned that there will be only 40 parking spaces on the old Riverside Studios site.

Clr Tony Brice voted against the plan. The Lindley Conservative said: “The car parking provision really concerns me. Why do we assume that students don’t have cars? Ninety-nine per cent of them have cars.

“I think there should be more parking, even if one of the blocks has to go to make room for it.”

But Clr Molly Walton disagreed.

The Crosland Moor and Netherton Labour woman said: “That statement by Tony Brice is absolute tosh.”

Clr Walton added that Huddersfield needed more student accommodation. She said: “The university is expanding so we’re going to need more places and I think this site is ideal.”

Clr Peter McBride agreed. The Dalton Labour man said: “Most of the students in accommodation adjacent to this site don’t have cars and it works.”

He added: “I think this plan is tasteful.”

But sub-committee chairwoman Clr Linda Wilkinson expressed doubts about the design. The Almondbury Lib Dem said: “I have concerns about the about how it looks. I don’t want to see a barracks on Wakefield Road.”

The subcommittee voted eight to two for the proposal, with only Clr Brice and Dalton Lib Dem Clr Rochelle Parchment opposing the plan.

The buildings will have a modern design but will be made with natural stone. All but one of the terraced houses facing Somerset Road will be demolished to make way for the new student homes.

The sub-committee refused permission for a larger plan for the site last March.

Watkin Jones had wanted to house 484 students in three blocks of flats between seven and nine-storeys high. There would have been 10 parking spaces on the site.

But the sub-committee backed planning officers’ advice to refuse the proposal because it would be over-bearing and out of character with its surroundings.