Plans to build flats on an empty former community centre site in Portslade go before councillors next week.
Brighton and Hove City Council (BHCC) want to demolish Windlesham House – a former day centre for the elderly – and build a three-story block of 15 flats available at affordable rents.
The building on the corner of Windlesham Close and Locks Crescent, near Southern Cross, was previously used by the Royal Voluntary Service as a base for Meals on Wheels until 2018 and has since fallen into disrepair.
The flats would be built as part of the council’s New Homes for Neighbourhoods scheme – an estate regeneration programme to tackle Brighton and Hove’s shortage of affordable housing.
In the application, Brighton and Hove City Council said: “There are no large areas of unused council land available in Brighton and Hove for new estates, and the defining features of the city – the sea to the south and the South Downs National Park to the North – limit expansion of the city boundaries.
“Therefore BHCC are prioritising the development of ‘infill’ sites on council land, such as former offices, garages and car parking sites.”
There are 12 objections to the application raising concerns from additional traffic and noise to loss of privacy and stress on local services.
An objector whose details are removed on the council website, said: “The flats have windows/ balconies overlooking the back of my house windows and garden this is an unacceptable loss of my current privacy.
“Current drainage/sewers currently not able to take water and we have flooding another load of residents will be a huge strain on this system.”
Another objector, whose details are also redacted, said: “I realise that there is a shortage of affordable homes in the city, but Portslade and especially North Portslade seems to be the focus of an unfeasible number of new developments.
“We have a large new estate to the North of Mile Oak, new flats and houses in the Old Village at Le Carbonne, new houses opposite Brackenbury School, and now the Windlesham Centre.
“There are very few roads into and out of North Portslade, all with exits South of North Portslade onto the Old Shoreham and the area is becoming very congested.”
At the June Planning Committee meeting, councillors granted planning permission to demolish and redevelop the Portslade Village Centre to make way for 28 council homes.
Plans for the Windlesham House site have gone through two public consultations before the council submitted planning applications.
In 2019 there was mostly negative feedback for proposals for a £5.3 million project to build 17 homes on the site from the 27 responses received.
A second public consultation in February 2023 received 13 responses from the community.
The Planning Committee is asked to be “minded to grant” the application subject to legal agreements relating to a £4,500 commitment to employment and training, tactile paving at the junction of Locks Crescent and Windlesham Close and yellow lines on Locks Crescent.
The committee is due to meet at 11am at Hove Town Hall on Wednesday, 7 August. The meeting is scheduled for webcast on the council website.
I agree with the strategy of filling in the spaces with Brighton, it feels like that’s one of the only few options really to challenge housing stock. The other, I believe, is also building upwards and denser.
But also it should be with concern to local infrastructure; shops, pharmacy, GPs, travel links, and parking to name a few; which should be developed in tandem to be proactive rather than reactive, because it’s important in my opinion to champion a stitch in time mentality, which is always easier and cheaper.
Effectively, good strategic planning.