REVISED plans to demolish a former bus depot which has been blighted by anti-social behaviour and replace it with 250 student flats are set to be given the go-ahead.

Colchester Council’s planning committee will consider proposals for the disused site in Magdalen Street, Colchester, at a meeting tomorrow night.

Victoria Hall Management wants to create the flats across three four-storey blocks.

If the plans are agreed, it will also provide a range of communal facilities like a quiet study area and laundrette on site.

Plans to build 230 student homes at the depot, which was last used by First Essex to store its fleet, were approved by the planning committee in 2016.

The revised proposals, which add another 20 flats, have also been recommended for approval by Colchester Council officers.

But Colchester High Steward and former town MP and mayor Sir Bob Russell has criticised the plans and said any proposals to up the number of students flats should have been discussed in front of a full-complement of councillors.

He said: “Colchester Council owns the land and in this case is behaving like a property speculator not a local authority.

“I do not think elected members have said yes on the plans to build more student flats.

“There is now a grotesque situation where the site is already set to be overdeveloped but now it will be even further overdeveloped.”

He also slammed proposals for more student accommodation in the nearby Cultural Quarter area.

He said: “These plans are not quite, but nearly, as bad for Colchester as Alumno’s plans for the Cultural Quarter.”

The council’s planning officers believe the student flats development will help turn around the area’s “run down”

appearance with Magdalen Street seen as a regeneration area by planners.

If the plans are approved, Victoria Hall Management will be asked to contribute £170,000 towards bus services in the area.

There have been three serious fires reported at the depot since 2017. Each time the cause was found to be deliberate.