The council is preparing to take a developer who ripped tiles of his pub to court, Brighton and Hove News understands.
Charlie Southall hired friends to hack off distinctive green tiles from the Montreal Arms in Albion Hill in March 2022, days after abandoning a crowdfunder to raise money to restore it in the face of neighbourhood scepticism.
The council issued a stop notice that day to halt the work, followed soon after by an enforcement notice, which was upheld on appeal.
Mr Southall then had until July last year to comply – but this deadline was effectively put on hold after he was given planning permission to restore the tiles, reopen the pub and make changes to the flat above in June.
Since then the only public movement has been an appeal against strict conditions around how the tiles should be replaced – which he abandoned at the eleventh hour.
However this week, ward councillor Tim Rowkins told neighbours of the pub that much more was happening behind the scenes and an announcement should be expected “shortly”.
He said: “The situation has gone on for too long and needs a resolution.
“Whilst it may seem that nothing is happening, there is a great deal of work going on behind the scenes to move this forward.
“For now, I’m not able to say much as it may jeopardise any future legal processes, but we’ll be able to share more information shortly.”
His words came as the local Green party sent out a leaflet calling on the council to explain what is happening.
It said: “Despite requests from residents, nothing has changed. Your local Green campaigners Fiona, Jerome and Luke are speaking up and asking the council to explain why enforcement action has been delayed – and when they’ll finally act.”
Good. Charlie has been stringing along this process for nearly a year and seemingly has no intention of following the law. Therefore he needs to be made to.