A LANDMARK tower dubbed the “Gateway” to Southampton is to become student flats after being hit by the banking crisis.

Developers now want to fill the proposed 13-storey building in Swaythling with 376 student rooms instead of the 81 apartments previously planned.

Southampton City Council had claimed the development on Parkville Road site on the junction of Stoneham Way and Thomas Lewis Way, would “transform the area”.

Council resources boss Councillor Jeremy Moulton said the revised scheme was still a “good proposal” and would reduce the need for family houses to be rented out to students.

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But Jim Cappleman, chairman of the Flowers Tenants and Residents’ association, said he feared drunken students making their way home from the university nightclub and piles of rubbish building up at the end of term.

“It’s deplorable. The Flowers Estate is virtually ringed by student accommodation and it’s putting nothing back into the community,” he said.

Residents are also concerned about the loss of a youth centre.

The council has proposed Woodmill Activities Centre in Woodmill Lane as an alternative.

French construction giant Bouygues, which owns Portsmouth builders Warings, was brought into to bail out the Care Capital development after Bellway Homes pulled out of an earlier scheme, then a deal with Swaythling Housing Associ-- ation failed to stack up financially.

Talks with Southampton University over the student rooms are now in advanced stages.

Care Capital’s plans for a ground floor medical centre for the Stoneham Lane doctors’ surgery, a Lloyds pharmacy, and a Co-op convenience store remain unchanged. Two other “community units” could be filled by a dentist, café or NHS sexual health clinic.

Tory council leaders have given their backing to the revised scheme which will pave the way for the land to be sold to a subsidiary of Bouygues.

Work on the stalled development, two years behind schedule, will not begin until next April, pending planning permission later this year. The tower will take two years to build.

A University of Southampton spokesperson said: "The University of Southampton supports the Council's view that this development should reduce the need to turn residential housing in to student accommodation but, as we remain in commercial negotiation with the developer, we can make no further comment at this time."