ECF Omni SARL seeks planning consent for a new entrance portal for the OMNi Centre, internally lit signage, external lighting and partial levelling of some stepped access.
The OMNi hospitality and leisure complex was bought by Triple B from Nuveen in April 2024. This proposal is the most visible element of policies to restore the OMNi to pre-Covid levels of popularity and profitability.
You can see the plans here (24/05872/FUL).
Below is the architect’s drawing of the proposed new West Elevation.
Now look at the following photograph taken this morning. Notice anything different?
That’s right – trees. There are three trees at the moment – hard to see in dreich December but a welcome burst of green here during spring and summer. They also appear in the applicant's ‘Existing’ but not in their ‘Proposed’ view-graphics.
According to the site plan there are only two trees while none at all are shown in the proposed ground floor and external lighting layout.
There’s no mention of cutting down trees in the application, only of a ‘new entrance consisting of portal, entrance doors and signage, replacement of glass doors and associated works’ (Spurtle’s italics).
If chopping down trees is indeed part of the proposal, we would expect the applicant to make a separate TCO application to the Council.
And we would expect the Council to respond in similar terms to those it used in November when refusing treeworks along Little King Street:
The removal […] does not appear to be necessary for the implementation of the planning permission 24/02828/FUL. The … tree [forms part of] a significant tree group in a dense urban area with very low canopy cover. The planning authority takes the position that this tree should be retained unless there are good arboricultural grounds for its removal.
Spurtle would like greater clarity about the applicant's plan for trees here. Even if there is there is no intention to remove trees from outside the OMNi, we would also welcome the Council making adequate protection of them during construction work a condition of any planning consent.
And another thing
There is another element of ECF Omni SARL’s plans which may concern some, and that is the change in position and context of Helen Denerley’s ‘Dreaming Spires’ artwork. By moving it south a few metres, it would be even more visually overwhelmed by the digital advertising screen immediately above.
It would also be flanked by two 4m street lamps ungracefully repeating the giraffes’ measured solitude and verticality. The charmed circle of Roy Campbell’s poem surrounding the creatures would also be broken … by recessed uplighters illuminating the giraffes’ nether regions for the benefit of curious bystanders at night.
Any reader wishing to comment one way or the other on the proposals can do so online here by 3 January 2025.
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