Safety fears over possible redevelopment of former nightclub into student flats in ‘grotty’ area of Leeds

Developers Breslin Properties want to demolish former nightclub Stinky’s Peep House, on York Street, and replace it with a 10-storey student flats block. Councillors have welcomed the idea in principle, although no formal planning application has been submitted yet.

But at a discussion about the early proposals at a planning meeting on Thursday, a number of Labour members flagged concerns about the potential risk to students walking back to the block at night.

Councillor Peter Carlill said the area, on the eastern side of the city centre, was “not one I’d walk around at night”. His colleague Councillor Al Garthwaite went further, saying: “It’s a grotty area, and it attracts ne’er-do-wells. It’s exactly the sort of place people will lurk. Young students coming to the inner city for the first time are quite at risk and vulnerable. It will become a magnet for ne’er do wells to predate, exploit and do whatever it is they do.”