Row over blueprint for jobs and homes

Councillors are split over a 10-year blueprint aimed at boosting homes, jobs and the environment in Brighton and Hove.

They are due to debate the blueprint – known as City Plan Part Two – at a “virtual” meeting of Brighton and Hove City Council tomorrow (Thursday 23 April).

The Conservatives have criticised the council’s ruling Labour group for putting forward a plan that will lead to hundreds of homes being built on “greenfield” sites.

And the Tories have also criticised the opposition Greens for supporting Labour and doing little to make good use of “brownfield” sites – those which have been built on before.

The Greens said that they wanted to do more to protect greenfield sites on the “urban fringe” of Brighton and Hove but blamed the Conservative government’s national planning policies for stopping them.

They also criticised government policy for preventing the council from insisting that developers include more “affordable” housing in their plans

Labour also said that the Conservatives’ National Planning Policy Framework restricted the council’s ability to pursue its own policies.

One councillor said that it was a government planning inspector who had insisted that the council allocate “urban fringe” sites – many around the edge of Brighton and Hove – as suitable for housing.

And Labour said that the first part of the council’s 10-year blueprint – City Plan Part One – has been signed off by all three political parties.

But even within Labour there are differences over specific sites such as Whitehawk Hill.

The council had hoped to build hundreds of “affordable” flats there through its joint venture with Hyde housing association.

The plan was pulled after protests, with objectors including Labour council leader Nancy Platts – before she took up her current post – and former Conservative council leader Mary Mears.

Now the council has allocated part of the site for a much more modest scheme, providing about 30 homes, but concerns still exist.

And the Conservatives are riled that the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, Caroline Lucas, has criticised councils elsewhere while her party colleagues, the Tories said, were “about to vote for the destruction of 16 green space in Brighton and Hove”.

Green convenor Phélim Mac Cafferty said: “It has been outrageous to watch the local Conservative Party rage against its own government’s planning rules by talking about a vision for green space when the Conservative party’s own laws say that green space is up for grabs by developers.

“Since the introduction of the damaging and short-sighted Conservative planning laws nine years ago, Greens have consistently opposed them.

“We were elected by our local communities to stand up for their interests, and we cannot risk seeing local decision making thrown to the wayside by failing to secure the best city plan we could in the circumstances.

“So Greens have pushed hard to improve Labour’s plan – but we are naturally disappointed not to see more of our strong proposals adopted.

“On the other side of the pandemic, we will continue to lobby ministers to give our communities a real say over their own city.

“Government must decentralise more of the decisions about planning to the elected representatives of our area who understand it best so that decisions can be taken freely that benefit people and communities, not only developers’ interests.”

Conservative councillor Robert Nemeth said: “What is now clearly a combined Labour and Green City Plan represents the biggest assault that the city has yet seen on its natural habitats.

“I  hope that residents who love the environment are under no illusion that support for these parties is the reason that we are so far behind surrounding local authorities on every meaningful metric – not least when it comes to protecting the environment.”