Councillors were heckled and jeered as they approved plans for a six-storey block of flats on the site of a garage despite objections from more than 120 neighbours.
Residents shouted “shame on you” from the public gallery at Hove Town Hall as Brighton and Hove City Council’s Planning Committee voted nine to one to grant planning permission for the flats.
The developer Orchard Holdings (Hove) Ltd will have to reach an agreement on various details with the council over its plans for 65 Orchard Gardens, Hove, on the corner of Nevill Road.
Orchard Holdings already has planning permission for a £14 million scheme to build 36 flats over five storeys.
The latest vote means that the company, owned by Alfred Haagman, 64, Jonathan Bennett, 37, and David Lincoln Willis, 63, can build 42 flats over six floors on Portslade Panelworks site.
Resident Jo Elston spoke on behalf of the 124 residents who objected to the application at the Planning Committee meeting yesterday afternoon (Wednesday 6 March).
Concerns include parking and the height of the proposed building and Jo Elston said: “There is a parking overspill of 24 additional spaces, suggesting that on-street parking is available.
“As a current resident, I am aware that no parking restrictions mean our streets are used for free parking.”
She added that parking pressures would worsen once other nearby housing schemes were completed, such as Moda, the former Sackville Trading Estate, in Sackville Road.
Conservative councillors Samer Bagaeen and Ivan Lyons, who represent Westdene and Hove Park ward, spoke against the application.
Councillor Bagaeen, a professor of planning, said that the council had “solid legal grounds” to refuse planning permission.
He said: “This development impacts the two-storey homes all along the streets that make up the Orchards.
“This proposal should be considered out of step with the two-storey design of the adjacent homes and providing and creating an awkward and discordant relationship.”
Councillor Lyons said that the site was not attractive as it was and neighbours were not opposed to redevelopment in principle.
But he added: “Families are crying out for more houses in this area, not flats, especially as we are trying to reverse the declining number of children attending our schools.”
Orchard Holdings’ agent Sarah Hufford, an associate director at ECE Planning, said that a similar application was already approved for 36 homes.
She said: “The principle of the development, the housing mix, access proposals and design approach have already been approved by the council.
“The site has also been found to be sustainably located, with lower than the maximum parking levels accepted, with lower levels of car ownership in this area, with 41 per cent of flat owners not owning a car at all.”
She told the committee that the new plans were only 1.5 metres higher than the approved application.
Conservative councillor Carol Theobald asked why there was no affordable housing planned on site.
Ms Hufford said that the latest scheme and the previous scheme would not be viable if affordable housing had to be included.
This was because of the high cost of development and increasing building costs, she said, and providing basement car parking was also expensive.
Councillor Theobald said: “This is a very prominent position. It will stick out a lot. It’s not fair to the neighbours as their houses and gardens will be overlooked.
“The overflow car parking – there will be some – is going to be very difficult in this area.”
Green councillor Sue Shanks said that the design would be better than what was there at the moment.
Councillor Shanks said: “I don’t see much difference from this application to the previous, which is an improvement.
“In terms of parking, as there’s no residents’ scheme, it’s going to be difficult for those streets around.”
Labour councillor Liz Loughran, who chairs the Planning Committee, said that she was disappointed at the lack of affordable housing. She said: “Our city is in a critical state with the lack of affordable housing.”
It particularly affected 22 to 44-year-olds, she said, adding: “The result is we have families who are leaving the city.
“We should be encouraging all developers to come up with affordable housing that meets the needs of all demographics in the city, not just those who can pay for private accommodation.”
Councillor Theobald was the only committee member to vote against the scheme although the council’s head of planning will be able to refuse permission if agreements are not reached by Tuesday 24 September.
These include agreements about
- a “commuted sum” payment of £305,000 towards affordable housing elsewhere in Brighton and Hove
- an £11,600 contribution towards skills needs on-site
- pre-employment training for new entrants to the industry
- on-site and apprentice placements
- employment and training strategy costs
- strategies for the demolition and construction phases
- a transport agreement
- “public realm” improvements in Orchard Gardens and Nevill Road
NIMBS….. its a brown field site. In easy reach of Hove Station and main Bus Routes. It will be quieter than the industry that currently uses the site -and- wont impact the value of the houses around it… PEOPLE NEED HOMES!
You presumably dont live bear the current industry at this site. There isnt a lot of noise from them. Yes cars move on and off site but so will this monstrous warehouse looking building with its green covering.
At least the current building doesnt take away light from our houses and gardens that for some, under this development, will get little or no sunlight! This in turn will affect the environment make up currently in the gardens for the plants and wildlife.
So many flats already being built that people cant afford to buy or rent.
Yes people need homes, but with all these flats its turning people into battery hens, couped up in little properties stacked on top of each other with little or no immediate outdoor space.
Hove needs houses not more flats.
Maybe your opinion would be different if it was outside your front door!
Where exactly do you suggest the 5000 houses that are needed over the next 3 years get built in Hove. Be realistic!
The current business that occupies the site now isn’t noisy. It’s not attractive I know, but the six storey block of flats proposed is also an eyesore, the usual ugly depressing style we already have too much of. The horrible, institution type of development at Sackville Road has set an unfortunate precedent for this kind of bunker like development of hutches for people to live in, if they can afford it. The slums of tomorrow?
ugly building but that area isnt anything special anyway
probably get snapped up by rich arabs with no taste
No need to add no taste that’s a given.
also the area isnt an orchard by any stretch
Old houses in Brighton may look good from the outside but let’s be real: living in them is quite a nightmare. Extremely thin windows, cardboard walls, get mould every time, water pipes are so old I’m not even sure is safe.
Dont know where you live or referring to but that definitely isnt describing the houses in the Orchard’s/Nevill area
My old house is very well built, by craftsmen, not like the Lego buildings so prevalent today.
Families can live in flats can’t they? They manage in every other country. Much better to build flats than subdivide existing houses.
I say build and build high. Density = economic success, this is an established principle and the UK is failing because if our low quality, low-rise neighbours which make for dour cities with poor facilities and a horrible car culture.
A clear example of Council profit and “contributions” ahead of community & neighbourhoods regardless of how poorly planned and out of place with even the initial description of the proposal being represented with a bias to allow. Previous application that was allowed was put in place by stealth with no neighbouring consultation being notified again in contradiction to the Councils own policies. A tragedy & another nail in the coffin of Hove’s character to turn everything into underused & unwanted high rise blocks
Perhaps you could update the photo with one that shows a 6 storey image, as that one doesn’t.
Exactly, this looks like a clever design so you can’t see the 6th storey from the residential roads. It’s located near the rear corner by the commercial elbow of site. What a clever piece of design, this should be commended.
Literally making the most use out of brownfield sites. This will only ever be noticed by the residents that will live in Dugards when that’s redeveloped!
And also 1 without the roads stretched so that it shows the true proximities to the neighbouring houses.
I always thought that the reason there’s industrial units and shops on the junctions of busy roads is because the noise and pollution makes it a nasty place to live. A lot of the new developments are on junctions like this. Maybe planners should take that into account
This block sticks out like a sore thumb and even an artist’s impression cannot turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse.
Why didn’t the Planning Committee send it straight back to the drawing board and insist on some proper architecture? This is not a fit addition for Hove. It would be interesting to track the journey of the £305k the developers paid to pay their way out of affordable housing provision and see what it builds elsewhere.
Who funds this website? Never pro-housing, guessing you’ve already all got yours?
Another fine example of this Labour-led “listening council”. When are you going to take on board feedback? What is the point of it if you are going to do what you want anyway? You did that with us regarding closure of schools and now you are doing it to residents here. Ridiculous! Listen to them.
Nobody wants new housing built next to them. But that isn’t reason enough to reject planning applications. Yes, the residents made arguments as to why this development was unsuitable, but the council didn’t agree so passed it. Applications can’t be turned down without compelling reasons.
Good point Nige; reading some of the comments added to consultations, there’s a real lack of strong arguments in the majority. Not always, but overwhelmingly.
When I moved to Hove in 1996 the previous years census stated that 200,000 people lived in Brighton & Hove, the 2021 census stated 289,000 nearly a 50% increase in 25 years. The simple fact is that building tower blocks of flats will result in the same issues as before. The city is overcrowded and any flat development should be restricted to the height of existing residential buildings. Moda is a complete eyesore a modern day slum for renters.
It’s estimated to be 627,524 this year. My favourite stat is that in the 2001 consensus, 330,000 identified as Jedi.
PS affordable housing not more eye watering expensive shoeboxes to rent. And a ban on commuted payments they offer nothing.