An official report on the proposed Royal Mail depot in Patcham does not reflect local anger, according to one of the area’s councillors.
Conservative councillor Alistair McNair said that he was surprised to read that there was “positive support” for the plans in a Brighton and Hove City Council report.
Tomorrow (Friday 29 July) senior councillors will be asked to approve, in principle, the grant of a long lease to the Royal Mail for the site, Patcham Court Farm, in Vale Avenue.
But Councillor McNair spoke out, having attended two online consultation events in January with fellow Tory councillor Anne Meadows, who also represents Patcham on the council.
He said: “Royal Mail did two webinars, which were highly controlled, and the report suggests there was positive noise. Whoever wrote that attended different events to me.
“At the webinars, they controlled which questions were answered, and they were 45 minutes long each.”
Since then, there had been zero consultation, Councillor McNair said, adding: “They’ve had four years to develop this and if they really cared about the people of Patcham, they could have at least tried to speak to people.”
Councillor McNair and Councillor Meadows started a petition which 400 people have signed, objecting to the Royal Mail proposals.
The third Conservative councillor for Patcham, Carol Theobald, has not spoken out because, as a member of the council’s Planning Committee, she is required to keep an open mind about the application.
If the council sells the disused farmland to the Royal Mail, two delivery office sites are likely to become housing – in North Road, Brighton, and Denmark Villas, Hove.
In the first instance, the council and its joint venture partner Hyde Housing, would have four months to try to agree a deal for one or both sites.
If the joint venture, known as Homes for Brighton and Hove, is unable to agree a deal with the Royal Mail, the sites are likely to be sold on the open market.
The Royal Mail has already submitted a planning application for the Patcham site. It went live on the council’s website on Wednesday 20 July and attracted more than 170 objections in seven days.
Councillors and residents in Patcham have previously campaigned against a proposal by the council to designate land for housing on the “urban fringe” at Horsdean.
Now Councillor McNair fears that turning Patcham Court Farm into a Royal Mail depot will start to harm the area’s rural character.
He said: “Once you have a significant change that eats away at the character, people can say: ‘Oh, you’ve got a sorting office. Now you can have housing as well.’
“Ten years down the line, you’ve got other developments as the character has changed. It’s a real concern and you can understand why people might jump to that conclusion.”
Since its public engagement webinars, the Royal Mail has modified its plans slightly, adjusting the design of the proposed access road off Vale Avenue and allocating more land for staff parking.
Councillor McNair questioned what else would change before the proposal went before the council’s Planning Committee.
He said that the Policy and Resources Committee was being strong-armed into agreeing the lease, adding: “Council officers are saying Royal Mail will pull the jobs if they don’t get this development.
“But the people here will be putting up with this for the rest of their lives. Maybe not forever but 50 years.
“If the Royal Mail moved it elsewhere, it wouldn’t result in job losses. People would just have to commute further. It feels like strong-arming.”
The report to the Policy and Resources Committee tomorrow said that Patcham Court Farm was cut off from adjoining farmland when the A27 Brighton bypass was built 30 years ago.
Previous plans to develop the site have fallen through, from a park and ride to a hotel proposal, with people raising concerns about potential pollution of the water source under the site.
Patcham also has a history of flooding, which neighbours have raised in the past, concerned about the extra run-off if the site is surfaced with concrete.
The special Policy and Resources Committee meeting is due to start at 2pm tomorrow (Friday 29 July) at Hove Town Hall. The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.
To view the or comment on the planning application, visit the council’s website and search for BH2022/02232.
They’re probably only proposing this building as a new storage facility for all the post they are incapable of delivering