A number of businesses have expressed an interest in running a café and managing public toilets in a pavilion building at The Level.
Labour councillor Tim Rowkins shared the news with fellow members of Brighton and Hove City Council during a committee meeting at Hove Town Hall this afternoon (Tuesday 14 November).
Councillor Rowkins said that the current toilets in the former Velo Café building had severe issues with plumbing and drainage, resulting in the building being unstable.
The council’s City Environment, South Downs and the Sea Committee backed a £210,000 proposal to redevelop the building which is known as the MacLaren Pavilion.
Councillor Rowkins said: “The old toilets, tucked away in a discrete external corner of the building, were blighted by drug use and anti-social behaviour.
“On top of that, the rent was too high and caused successive businesses to struggle. Suffice it to say, the project was not a success.”
He said that the council was now looking at future options for the building but it required expensive repair work before finding a new purpose.
Labour councillor Theresa Fowler asked about the issues affecting the public toilets at the café building which has operated as Velo, Tomato Dolce, Salato and, finally, The Level Café, which closed in 2021.
The council’s assistant director for the environment Rachel Chasseaud said that all public toilets had some risk of anti-social behaviour but the ones at The Level were in a dark shielded corner with “no natural surveillance”.
She said: “Where the MacLaren Pavilion is, there are a lot more people in the area. It’s much more open and you’d have the café.
“The other pavilion has the police space in it and our environmental enforcement officers are often based there and Cityparks staff.”
Green councillor Kerry Pickett asked about the future of the existing building and whether it would be demolished.
Mrs Chasseaud said that an appraisal was under way, with no plans to demolish the building.
She said: “The problem we are going to have is there will be an additional cost to the council attached to any of the options.
“The other challenge is you don’t want to see the loss of a building that isn’t that old so we’re looking at what we can do that is financially viable.”
The committee unanimously approved the proposals to change the MacLaren Pavilion into a café and public toilet subject to planning permission.
Any business taking on the café would be responsible for managing the toilets.
Since it opened in 2013, the £1 million Velo café building has had to have its eco-roof replaced before being forced to close when water came up through the floor.
Flooding at The Level, which has closed the café for two years, was partly a result of damage caused to the Victorian brick drainage system when the skate park was built there.
A hoarding currently surrounds the café building.
More money after bad. The decorated hoarding shows how the local inmates respect the space.
How horribly dismissive of local people – of whom I am one. These repulsive opinions are not wanted in Brighton – perhaps you’ll be happier in a right wing Tory area
A one million pound building left without repair!
And wasting a further £200,000 in another development is just stupid!
No public toilets on the level will work without being staffed & for the council to land that hit potato on a new cafe owner is just asking it to fail.
Who remembers Green cllr Pete West prattling on about how great the ‘improvements’ to the Level were and how fantastic the new cafe was. All a Green vanity project and an expensive failure.
When first commissioned, a lady involved with the project, said something to the effect that it was self-policing e.g. parents and children in one area, skateboarders, children elsewhere, all keeping their eyes open. Sadly as time elapsed not the case, ideals shattered. I personally thought it one of the Green’s better vanity projects. The project which annoyed me most was, the Northbound Cycle/ footpath on Ditchling Road. I used to walk along that lane and hardly any cyclists used it at the time, it was mainly walkers and runners.
Self-Policing huh? That’s…never worked. In anything. Let’s hope this is another lesson why that mantra shouldn’t be held up in the future.
Name the councillors who approved the million pound disaster in the first place. Officers who submitted the plan should be sacked but they are probably GMB members!
Council officers are never accountable for their actions.
Otherwise, there’d only be a handful left, and indeed none in the Transport department.
Yes, let’s waste another 200k so all the druggies down there can wreck it. Good old Brighton and hove council. I’m sure there are better things to spend that money on.
Join On the Level Facebook Group
Name the contractor that damaged the Victorian water drainage system when building the skate park. They’re to blame for this mess. Make them rectify it. Then the derelict cafe can be used again.
When will the councils stupidity ever end. Stop wasting the people of Brighton and Hove’s hard earned money on your vanity projects.