A Turkish restaurant which wants to create a roof terrace is coming up against opposition from neighbours.
Ephesus in Preston Street was given permission to extend into a flat above the restaurant in 2021 and now wants to extend the first floor to the flat roof next to it.
It has applied for permission to put a retractable awning over it and install a glass screen.
But the Regency Squares Community says it would spoil the look of the street – and wants a wooden fence they have already put up without permission to go too.
The application says: “The proposal work is limited to minimal external alterations to the existing building or the historic fabric and therefore we believe there would be no detrimental impact upon the character and appearance of the Regency Square Conservation Area, or on the setting of the nearby listed buildings.”
However the Regency Squares Community said the application was an attempt to “legitimise unauthorised development”.
It said: “The applicant clearly has changed the external appearance of the building by extending the restaurant area out onto the roof, completely contrary to the proposed and approved 2021 drawings, plus the erection of incongruous wooden fencing.
“Per the Planning Officer, this is detrimental to the conservation area, in which first floor fencing is not a vernacular feature. It also detrimentally affects the setting of the adjoined listed building.
“The extending of the restaurant, unauthorised removal of an original wall, plus erection of fencing all represent unauthorised developments. The 2021 proposal drawings made clear there would be no access from the restaurant to the external now-fenced area.
“The current application refers to replacing that wooden fencing material with glass but portrays the wooden structure as though part of the existing building.
“It clearly is an unauthorised addition, as would be a glass balustrade. Any development above the original parapet would not enhance or preserve the conservation area, as would the appearance of people above the parapet.
“This is an attempt at installation of a roof terrace by stealth, out of character and detrimental to the conservation area.”
When the restaurant first opened in 2014, it got into hot water with Brighton and Hove City Council’s planning department for putting up wooden panelling on the outside of the building.
An enforcement notice was served, and the cladding came down.
The council is currently pursuing enforcement action against another restaurant a few doors down, Fish and Chips, which has built an unauthorised tiled platform and put tiles on the outside of the building.
Everything must be objected to. Nothing can change. No new homes. No businesses making more money. Nothing getting better.
They should know better than anyone, having be subject to enforcement notices before, that you need permission to extend in this way. Doing it by stealth just means you annoy people, and that’s never going to help you get permission, quite the opposite.
Like so many people I now shop elsewhere, even at the Marina where I get everything I need from a supermarket at the expense of small traders!