A gym’s plans for a privacy screen, handrails and ventilation grilles to create an outdoor terrace have been refused on appeal.
Brighton and Hove City Council turned down two planning applications by Natural Fit Gym which wanted to create an outdoor area on the second floor of the St Agnes Church building, in Newtown Road, Hove, in September last year.
There were five objections to each application from neighbours, with Labour councillor Jackie O’Quinn, who represents Goldsmid ward, also submitting an objection to the plans.
Now, planning appeal for both applications have been rejected.
One of the appeals was for a retrospective application for high-level ventilation grilles on the gable end, a handrail on the parapet wall by the flat roof and outside lights on the second floor on the south side of the building which were already in place.
The Planning Inspectorate said that the ventilation grilles were a similar colour to the main slate roof but contrasted with the light-coloured stone on either side of it.
The handrail was described as a “crude, incongruous structure (that) essentially resembles scaffolding”.
It said: “Consequently, despite following the main profile of the parapet and not fixed to or touching the coping stones, the handrail is close enough that this lack of refinement jars against this most important and carefully crafted feature of this wall.
“It also protrudes sufficiently far enough above the coping stones that this discordant juxtaposition, including disruptive sequence of vertical posts, connectors and linear alignment, visually cuts across and in front of the taller red brick elevation behind, including buttresses and some stone detailing such as ornate windows.
“This undermines the integrity and cohesiveness of this part of St Agnes Church.”
The proposed translucent glazed screens were described as “visual clutter”.
The Planning Inspectorate said: “This discordant angular, visual clutter would disrupt the broadly uniform linear plane of this part of the south elevation behind and as such be unduly prominent in these more exposed positions close to edges and parts of St Agnes Church.
“This intrusive, conspicuous presence would be noticeable in public view from Newtown Road in both directions and from Goldstone Lane in respect of the west screen.”
Natural Fit was praised for the work converting the 20th-century former church into a gym but the newer additions were an issue due to their effect on the character of the building.
