A builder plans to put up 120 homes on a site in Portslade.
Crest Nicholson has contacted North Portslade ward councillors Peter Atkinson and Penny Gilbey to tell them about the proposal.
The company wants to build the homes on privately owned land at the top of Mile Oak between the A27 Brighton bypass and Graham Avenue, Overdown Rise and Gorse Close.
The site is one of several “urban fringe” sites identified by Brighton and Hove City Council in the City Plan as potentially suitable for housing.
Crest Nicholson intends to submit a planning application for 120 homes of which 40 per cent will be classed as “affordable”.
The rest of the land will be “retained and enhanced” as part of the existing Site of Nature Conservation Importance (SNCI) and informal open space.
The allotments currently on the site will be left untouched as will the small wood at the east of the site which is home to owls.
Over the next few months contractors will be carrying out surveys of the site in relation to contamination, archaeology and ecology.
The proposals will probably take formal shape in September but Councillor Atkinson and Councillor Gilbey said that they were keen that local residents learn of the plans as soon as possible.
Councillor Gilbey is deputy chair of the council’s Planning Committee so has to keep an open mind and remain neutral.
However, Councillor Atkinson and Hove MP Peter Kyle will be talking a more active role in ensuring that residents are fully and properly consulted.
To that end a leaflet is being delivered to at least 2,000 residents in North Portslade alerting them to the proposals and asking for their initial views via a questionnaire.
Councillor Atkinson said: “There are understandable concerns about our local infrastructure.
“These concerns include drainage and floodwater, car parking, the medical centre and the capacity of the local road network to cope with extra cars.”
Councillor Atkinson has been meeting with Crest Nicholson and the council’s Planning Department to find out more about possible timescales.
He said: “Myself and Peter Kyle are absolutely committed to ensuring that the concerns of local residents are heard.
“I recognise that the city is in desperate need of more housing but we must make sure local residents’ views are taken into account as well.”
I am totally against this as having lived in Mile Oak all my life, that area is a natural habitat for slow worms, birds, hedgehogs, badgers etc a place for dog walkers to go, peace for people at the allotments including me. Mile Oak cannot cope with more traffic and people as it is.
There are plenty of other places like Toad hall that can be built on not the tiny piece of land at the back of Mile Oak. How far do the Government need to go to make it a concrete jungle. What about the land along Mile Oak Road near the farm. That was sold off and is available.
there are big storm drains that run along the land at Overdown Rise to stop the flooding into Graham Cresent, what will happen with the building works with more water needed.
Mile Oak medical centre cannot cope as it is.
I am totally against this!
originally, your house was just a field supporting wildlife of different types.
Housing could sprawl all over the Downs and still not satisfy demand. There is an endless stream of people who want to live here …
I spent most of my childhood in Mile Oak and now have returned. I walk my dog every day on that field, and enjoy the peace when tending my allotment.Choosing this area to live, and ultimately retire in was because it is friendly and quiet!
Iam shocked that so many homes are being proposed and how much impact that will have on this peaceful area. I agree totally with the previous comment. Strange residents weren’t consulted before plans seem to have been agreed?!
Not at all happy!
Hi Janet, the plans haven’t been agreed yet. They are at an early stage. The developer has shared some information about what it hopes to build with local councillors and they are trying to keep people in the area up to date with what is proposed.
Obviously the building developer has never left Mile Oak and tried to gain access to the A27 via Hangleton by pass in rush and/or school hours. It can already take 15mins + to get on the A27.
And as mentioned above the area around the allotments is full of wildlife and happy dog walkers.
Also Mile Oak Clinic is hideously over crowed and there has already been a tragic fatality on Chalky Road.
I just wish the greedy property developer realised he is being a money grabbing animal killer. On his conscience be it.
So you have a home but young people can’t have one! Typical brexiter.
If this development is stopped or cut by 50% then another 50% will need to be build on more green belt somewhere else. Much better people allow high density housing to be built if they want to save the green belt.
I have already written a long letter to the Planning Dept. last July 2015.
We bought our house for the stunning view and once the bypass was finished it still is a lovely view.I realize young people need homes, I have 2 children in their 30’s, Had it not been for the by pass I feel the land would have been part of the Southdown’s National Park.
There are still a lot of brownfield sites plus derelict houses and empty properties which could be developed first.
Unfortunately builders do not want to build bungalows so older people could downsize and younger people could move onto the housing ladder,no builders would rather cram as many town houses onto a site to make the most money.
I know my comments will not make a scrap of difference to the outcome,as a taxpayer and ratepayer we obviously do not count.
Instead of ” retaining and enhancing” the rest of the land, I suggest they just leave it alone for the residents of Mile Oak to enjoy.
The Benfield Valley site has had plans put forward a number of times over the years and each time the residents of Hangleton object and the council reject the plans. As a development it has easy access on to the A27 and has a much bigger area to build both affordable housing and if needed additional local services.
I am not entirely against the idea of building extra housing in Mile Oak but I do think there are better options that can be looked at first in the local area.
Yes Benfield valley!
Never was there a site more begging to be developed!
With a slip road constructed onto the A27 by-pass, it would be ideal!
How can Mile Oak possibly cope with more traffic!!!
It is a nightmare trying to get onto the bypass, particularly during rush hour!
What about Drs? You have to wait long enough for an appointment now!!
Schools are we going to build another?..think not!
No money in schools or medical centres!..
Just because a ‘brown site’ was rather conveniently left cut off from the rest of ‘OUR SOUTH DOWNS’ it just gets built on!…how did it become privately owned?? Who owns it and how (i guess the developer) but how? srednahkcaB…Who said that!!
The next best site, if not Benfield Valley is the field between Fox Way and Foredown Tower but that would still cause all the aforementioned problems and would also be a shame!
They will build no matter what we say anyway…unless they care about crested Newts, we used to find them on the site they want to build on!
Where do you think they are going to find a Doctors Surgery in Hangleton? Mile Oak is a dump anyway and so affordable housing would be more suited to that area.
It is well nigh impossible to get out of our road (Crest Way) between 8am and 8.50am each weekday because of traffic coming up from Mile Oak and when you do it takes 15minsor so to continue down Fox Way towards the bypass.How on earth can we take the traffic from another 120 households? Unless the traffic issue is sorted out this planning should not go forward.
Yes Susan,
Someone talking some sense.
Although Brighton and Hove desperately needs housing, adding so many houses into a small plot of land completely cut off, apart from a few narrow street is ludicrous.
If the planners were able to build a road around the outside of the allotments and join it to Fox Way then this project would be ok.
I doubt that will happen though.
Like many of the previous responses, I am equally concerned about extra demand on already strained services, like the Mile Oak Medical Centre, the schools, access roads already congested at time with buses and the general infrastructure. Once developments of this kind take away open green spaces that can never be returned to their for state. I am therefore against any development of this application.
We moved to Overdown Rise over 50 years age to a peaceful location and where we were assured it would remain so as the surrounding area was farmland and owned by the Water Board and would not be built on….. how wrong can you be, firstly we had the noisy By-pass with very poor access to the aforesaid road. Now we have a proposed building development !!
Our immediate concerns are as follow:
Green spaces are extremely important and this small area contains such a divers array of flora and fauna many of which are endangered species and we need to try to maintain them
The area has limited access to the A27 and the 259 and congestion is very high having to queue to leave the area and parking already is a nightmare in the surrounding roads.
Doctors and Dentist surgeries are extremely busy and this extra amount of people would add greatly to the overstretched NHS
Drainage has always been a problem now under control, but more housing would put it under pressure again.
Overdown Rise is a very steep road and we need assurance that if this goes through, that no heavy vehicles would use the top of Overdown Rise as a rat run for quick access to the building site.
Lastly we understand the need for more housing but if the development proceeds for 125 dwellings, will this just be the start of it and will the rest of the land and surrounding areas be taken for more building.
We have to accept the rise in demand and the needs of families across our vibrant city. What we should not accept is yet more poorly planned boxes, built to squeeze as many houses into a plot at the expense of providing green spaces that do little to enrich the area or the needs of the new occupants.
Crest Nicholson’s website should be warning enough to the council, do we need more bland cramped boxes, that seem to be stuck in a pastiche of post-war housing, that offers little to its community or for that matter provide affordable housing.
Be brave Brighton, find a forward-thinking developer, not hell bent on just profit, skyscrapers or outdated designs.