Fifteen council flats are to be built at Robert Lodge, in Manor Place, Whitehawk, after a proposal was granted planning permission this afternoon (Wednesday 19 November).
The flats are part of the New Homes for Neighbourhoods programme which includes plans to build 500 flats on council land across Brighton and Hove.
The Robert Lodge scheme comprises 15 flats in two three-storey buildings. One of the blocks will be built in place of the old housing office – a single-storey prefab. The other will use open space on the northern side of the communal gardens.
All the flats – 13 one-bedroom and 2 two-bedroom flats – will be classed as affordable and will be rented to people on the council housing list.
More than 60 neighbours objected to the plans which one resident, Lucy Skelton, of Rugby Place, described as overbearing, shoehorned in and poorly designed.
One of the East Brighton ward councillors, Labour group leader Warren Morgan, said: “We do desperately need council housing in the city but if we are going to infill we need to get it right.”
He said that he and his ward colleagues, Councillor Gill Mitchell and Councillor Chaun Wilson, had held a series of meetings with people living in the area.
Councillor Morgan said that residents supported the need for social housing but they didn’t support taking away open space in a crowded area.
Brighton and Hove City Council Planning Committee member Councillor Lynda Hyde said that she understood residents’ concerns.
But, she said, when it was built, it probably wouldn’t be as bad as they feared – and people desperately needed places to live.
Councillor Ian Davey said that it was quite a modest proposal and that the council’s housing team had made efforts to address residents’ concerns.
Councillor Alan Robins said: “Nobody objects social housing. Nobody objects to social housing being built here.”
But, he said, 64 objections were a lot of objections from people who lived close to the site and understood the area, particularly about the size and scale of the northern block.
There were also criticisms of the positioning of the balconies which face the road rather than the communal gardens.
A report to the Planning Committee said: “The proposed development would provide additional affordable housing for the benefit of the city within two suitably scaled and designed buildings.
“The development would have a generally acceptable impact on the amenities of existing residents and would not add significant parking pressure to the surrounding area.
“The proposal is considered to be in accordance with development plan policies.”
The committee approved the plans by eight votes to three at the meeting at Hove Town Hall.
Work is expected to start next year.
Council housing can be bought by those living in any of it. Only if these new units are added to Seaside Homes holdings will they be exempt from sale to their occupants once they have lived in them for a qualifying period of about two years.
The sale of council housing must stop. The Tories are committed to it. Labour are committed to it too. In Govt. for 13 years they had a chance to put a stop to it and chose not to.
So who WILL put a stop to the sale of council housing, anyone?
Greens
Warren “New Labour” Morgan is priceless! Labour politician fidhts new council housing!
Warren Morgan is leading a party that is trying to do something for people in need of homes. He is opposed at every turn by the Greens who scoff at any attempt to do what is right for working people. But then most of them are well-off members of the middle class who look on periods of Tory rule as a minor inconvenience!
The Greens have had their time. They have brought Council services in Brighton and Hove to a virtual halt whilst they have indulged in their brand of student politics. Time to say goodbye to them, look forward to May, and Vote Labour.
Got some bad news for you class warrior, whether we like it or not, all parties are what I suppose you would “middle class”, as are most people. I am not blinkered like you as I am personally fairly uninterested in which “class” someone belongs to, I am far more interested in them as a person.
If Warren “New Labour” Morgan was really interested in helping his constituents, the city and those in need of housing, he could stop his petty politicking happily joining forces with the Tories and join with the Greens in providing more social and council housing. That he is fighting against council housing in Whitehawk is staggering.
If you took the trouble to actually read the report you would find that Warren’s position is that he (and Labour) want council housing. But he wants the same standards of development that the Green party’s supporters would want near them.
It is Labour that has found the land and the money to build 500 homes in Brighton and Hove. Why has the Green Party not seen what is under their nose? When we get a Labour government as well then local authorities will get the chance to do a lot more.
Residents of this City have observed that very little has been achieved by this useless bunch of Greens in the four years that they have mismanaged the City.
Right to buy gives the opportunity for people who would never be able to afford a property on the open market, plus if a young couple got a council house and lived in it for 60 years it’s hardly different from selling it from council stock anyway.
One thing, among others, the council should be doing is spending resources on those in greatest need. At ;east the council are now acknowledging that they have a housing crisis and the proposals stated here are a mere drop in the ocean-more should go into housing the homeless and the ‘Brighton Connection’ Policy should be done away with. Also more on sheltered housing including adequete and appropriately trained personnel to run the schemes and, where you have good personnel affording them maximum support. There are, I believe, over a thousand names on the sheltered housing waiting list alone- key missing factors from the council are AUTHENTIC dialogue and AUTHENTIC listening