The owners of an old brewery converted into flats in Portslade hope to create four new flats on the site.
The Le Carbone Brewery on South Street, Portslade was converted into 48 housing units and two commercial units following permission from the council in 2017.
A plan to house recovering addicts there was scrapped in October 2022 after local residents were angry that they had not been consulted.
Now the owners, Peker Holding London Limited, have applied to vary a condition in their planning permission, which would create an additional four flats on the first floor in what had been approved as a commercial area.
The planning statement says: “It is evident that there is no demand for class E accommodation in this location, being remote from business centres.
“It is therefore prudent to put this building to best use, rather than let it stand empty.
“The location is in a residential area and there is a demand for residential accommodation.”
The owners say that after five years of marketing, only the ground floors have had commercial interest from a personal training company.
Two of the eight parking spaces previously allocated to the commercial units could be reallocated as residential parking, and the car-club space would be relocated to on-street.
This means the development as a whole would have 35 residential parking spaces for the 46 flats without a garage.
Designs show plans for three one-bed flats and one two-bed flat within the space.
The application would not change the external appearance of the building, although a rooflight for would be located behind a large chimney and would not be visible.
The originally proposed development consisted of 11 new builds and 37 flat conversions, with 32 residential parking spaces and eight commercial spaces.
You can find the application on the council’s planning portal under reference BH2024/00272.
The property was never going to be used for former addicts, it was for people with support needs arising from mental health. The disgusting hate campaign you and councillors only keen on maintaining their own positions of power whipped up resulted in people in need of good quality housing with support not getting it and feeling abused and harassed. Well done.
Local people were not consulted and felt rail roaded by the building owner and St Joseph’s – the tired trope of a “hate campaign” was used a division tool at the meeting. It failed then – and it fails now – to describe a community with Emmaus at its heart. Lazy slogan chanting does not address the real issue. Please stop!
Mental health needs…such as addiction recovery…
Over priced the units so no one would take this was most probaly the plan all along.
What kind of prices are they looking for?
A very common strategy that developers use to maximise profit and cram people in. I think you’re right, Ken. And anyone who describes these properties as “quality homes” clearly hasn’t been inside with their eyes open.