Southwell Town Council raise no objections to temporary portacabin with a lecture theatre and laboratory at Nottingham Trent University’s Brakenhurst campus

An application for a new temporary portacabin with a lecture theatre and laboratory at a university has been considered by a council.

Southwell Town Council’s planning and highways committee discussed the application by Nottingham Trent University at its meeting on November 6.

The new portacabin would be situated on a carpark at the Brackenhurst campus, on the outskirts of the town, and would temporarily replace facilities in the university’s Lyth Building while it undergoes “essential improvement works”.

The cabin, for which a five year permission is sought, would contain a lecture theatre, teaching rooms, IT room and laboratory, which the applicant says are required to “enable the continued delivery of high-quality research and teaching on site”.

Fifty car parking spaces would be lost at the Glasshouse car park, a brownfield land site with a rubble surface.

The 945 square-metre, rectangular temporary building is planned to be warpped in a vinyl finish with a brick-cladding look.

Lynn Harris supported the application, and noted that with the vinyl wrap it ‘looks better’ than another portacabin at the campus which she described as ‘hideous’.

Roger Blaney also supported the application, but suggested it would be preferable for permanent planning consent to be sought.

Gina Adams raised concerns about the sustainablity of the application.

She said: “There’s no mention of the sustainablity of the building and the fake bricks.

“What happens at the end of the life of these buildings, do they just get thrown out? There’s elements which don’t sit well with me.”

Committee chairman Malcolm Brock added: “I could think of plenty of reasons to object, but we have to be pragmatic.”

Councillors voted to lodge no objections to the application.

A decision on the application will be made by Newark and Sherwood District Council.