Councillors rebuff Brighton social club’s shutter plan

Councillors told a social club to start reporting anti-social behaviour in its doorway to the police after turning down a planning application for an electric shutter.

The Cowley Club in London Road, Brighton, applied to fit a metal shutter across its entire shop front because people had been using its doorway as a toilet late at night.

Officials advised the council’s Planning Committee to refuse planning permission because solid metal shutters would breach council policy.

Club secretary Ian Bros described London Road as the “wild west” with more than 20 businesses installing metal shutters without applying for planning permission.

Mr Bros said that 11 shops along a neighbouring stretch of London Road, between Aldi and the old Santander bank – which has been empty for more than a year – included the boarded up former Peacocks and Poundland stores.

The Cowley Club had the street’s last original shopfront, with its recessed doorway, the Planning Committee was told.

At its meeting at Hove Town Hall on Wednesday (4 May) Mr Bros said: “It is regularly being used as a public toilet. We’re constantly having to clear up human faeces.

“It’s being used for drug deals. One of our volunteers fairly recently attempted to leave the club late at night to close up and found there was a drug deal going on in the doorway.”

Labour councillor Clare Moonan asked if it was possible to fit a shutter over the doorway only.

But Mr Bros said that the window sloped in towards the door, making it impossible, and the club did not want to lose its original shopfront and replace it with a more modern one.

Labour councillor Daniel Yates asked if the club had ever reported anti-social behaviour and crime to the police to show there were exceptional circumstances to override council policy.

Mr Bros said that the club had made no reports.

Councillor Yates said: “They could have made a very good case for bringing forward either something that was a roller grill or removable grill.

“But in these circumstances, they’ve brought forward something that’s worse than the last time it was rejected, regardless of whether it’s got something pretty painted on the outside. It doesn’t meet planning policy.”

Conservative councillor Carol Theobald said that losing the attractive shopfront and replacing it with a “terrible” shutter would be a shame.

She said that enforcement action should be taken against those who had put up shutters without planning permission, adding: “The applicant should try to get CCTV and get the police involved there.”

Green councillor Marianna Ebel disagreed, saying that London Road was not in a conservation area. She added that the painted design on the proposed shutter would be a “pretty addition”.

Councillor Ebel said: “I don’t think it would ruin the look of London Road. It could be an improvement.

“We’ve heard there are needles and faeces in the entrance regularly. You wouldn’t necessarily call the police when the culprit has gone.”

Her fellow Green councillor Sue Shanks and Independent Bridget Fishleigh voted to approve the shutter but were outvoted by five other committee members.