A developer’s plans to convert a former chapel in Brighton into flats has failed on appeal.
Property developer Mike Stimpson wanted to convert the former Mission Church Hall, in Bentham Road, Brighton, into eight studios and one two-bedroom flat.
Brighton and Hove City Council’s Planning Committee refused permission in November last year, with councillors describing the proposals as “poky”.
The Planning Committee suggested that Mr Stimpson should come up with a better plan.
He said that the refusal had scuppered his hopes of letting the flats for “social rents” as part of a planning agreement linked with another scheme in Portslade.
But four of the Portslade homes – out of 14 planned for the corner of Foredown Road and Fox Way – would be classed as “affordable” homes.
Mr Stimpson said in his appeal that the studio flats complied with the minimal national standard and the two-bedroom flat exceeded the required floor space.
His agent, Lewis and Co Planning, disputed the objections of people living near by that the scheme would be “unneighbourly”, causing noise and disturbance, saying that Hanover had a high density of terraced housing and flats.
Even though the hall has not been in community use for more than 30 years, the planning inspector who handled the appeal was told that a church hall would create noise disturbance from singing and gatherings.
The planning inspector, Robin Buchanan, rejected the appeal, saying that a second-floor flat’s sloping roof left a “significant” part of the habitable space with a ceiling height of less than 1.5 metres.
He said: “I find that the proposal would fail to provide satisfactory internal living conditions for future occupiers of the two-bedroom flat with regard to useable space and of the rear ground floor studio flats with respect to noise, disturbance and privacy.
“It would also fail to provide satisfactory external living conditions for any of the flats with regard to useable space.”
That’s a shame. Mike Stimpson is the only decent landlord I’ve had. He let me take one of his studios with no deposit after Brighton council homeless department told me that a cancer diagnosis didn’t make me vulnerable and ended my stay in the crappiest most greedy homeless hostel in Brighton. I’ve now been there about five years and turned my life around. It’s small but the rent is reasonable and not parasitically greedy. He’s even protected the tenants here from the electricity price rises by swallowing the costs himself and still charges us the same as unit cost as before the great energy robbery.
Still I’m sure the property will end up with some money grabbing leach who gives the council a brown envelope to turn it into luxury flats.