MPs and councillors have joined hundreds of people in opposition to a defence manufacturer’s plans to keep a temporary extension at its Brighton factory.
The application was due to go before Brighton and Hove City Council’s Planning Committee on Wednesday 6 March, but has been put back to Wednesday 3 April as planning officers seek legal guidance.
Temporary planning permission for the extension built at L3 Harris’s site at Home Farm Business Centre in Home Farm Road, Brighton, in September 2018, was for five years.
More than 600 objections were submitted by the public as the company builds products used in conflict zones globally, with most comments referring to bomb racks and bomb release mechanisms. A further 130-signature petition was also submitted.
In the application to make the building permanent L3 Harris’s agent Parker Dann said: “It is likely, that to support the business needs of the applicant on the site, a further application for a new extension would follow a refusal of the retention of the existing extension, as this is now an integral part of the operations at current staffing levels.
“The loss of the extension could harm the financial stability of the current operations and impact on staffing levels and employment in the city.
“Removing an existing structure, only to seek to replace it with a new permission would result in needless carbon usage through energy expenditure at both stages.”
Conservative councillor Samer Bagaeen, who is a professor of planning, has opposed the application as the extension is “in breach of planning law” and neither the policy nor economic development teams at the council had commented on the proposals.
He said: “If economic development saw no need to comment because of the absence of business impact, then the comment from the applicant in the planning statement that the removal of the extension would adversely impact on the business requirements of the applicant, with associated risk to local employment is false.
“Others have objected here noting that it would be a good thing if the business requirements of the applicant were harmed given it is engaged in an unethical business model but that is not a planning issue.
“I also disagree with the applicant’s statement that if the extension were to be removed, this would also cause environmental harms through the loss of the embodied carbon in the existing structure, and the loss of materials that would enter the waste stream as a result of the removal.”
Labour councillors Mohammed Asaduzzaman and Theresa Fowlers have opposed the application due to the expired planning permission and comments from residents in Hollingdean and Fiveways ward.
East Brighton and Peacehaven Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle raised the political issues surrounding L3 Harris’s business as an arms manufacturer as items made in the factory have been found in Yemen after international humanitarian law (IHL) violations occurred.
He said: “I urge the Planning Committee to take real precautions to prevent any arms produced in our city to be used against innocent lives.
“The committee needs to examine the legal implications of knowingly allowing the supply of weapons parts made on its land to be used in violation of international law.”
Green councillors Raphael Hill, Ellen McLeay and Kerry Pickett also opposed the application, as did Brighton Pavilion Green MP Caroline Lucas.
Councillor Pickett said: “Brighton and Hove City Council’s constitution says that all decisions ‘will be made in accordance with respect for human rights’.
“Military action against civilians using weapons from L3-Harris in Gaza violates the basic principles of International Humanitarian Law and has been condemned by the United Nations, Amnesty International and many other human rights experts.
“This application should not be approved in line with the council’s own constitution.”
Ms Lucas recognised many people are against L3 Harris’s presence in the city, but the committee would only refuse the application on planning grounds and the original structure was temporary.
She said: “L3 Harris is very well aware of their presence in the city being controversial, so I find it surprising that they were careless enough to allow their current temporary planning application to lapse and thereby be forced to retrospectively apply.
“The planning system must not condone large, well-resourced companies failing to adhere to the terms of previous planning agreements.
“Moreover, the site backs onto Wild Park, one of the city’s largest nature reserves.
“Whilst it is of course possible for the existing industrial buildings to co-exist alongside the neighbouring natural environment, it is important that businesses using industrial space are respectful of this, and that they adhere to planning rules and understand their obligations in this regard.
“The fact that such an established business has either flouted planning rules or not understood them is worrying.”
Anna Stavrianakis, Professor of International Relations at the University of Sussex spoke at a protest against the business extending its planning permission during a protest in Brighton on Saturday 24 February.
Professor Stavrianakis said: “The council should not give planning permission to a company that makes weapons components that Israel is using in Gaza.
“The International Court of Justice says the war is plausibly genocidal: there is an obligation on all public bodies in the UK – including councils – to try and prevent genocide. Does Brighton and Hove City Council want to be complicit in genocide?”
There are two letters supporting the application, one from Conservative councillor Ivan Lyons.
Councillor Lyons said: “I see no reason why the temporary extension not be permanent.
“This is a planning application and so long as what is being manufactured is legal it is not down to the anti-Israel mob and anti-semites to dictate to whom the manufacturer sells their wares.”
I guarantee every person objecting to this petition will have said or done at least one of the following (probably all of them):
–They will believe that the west should be arming Ukraine in their battle with Russia and will criticise politicians for withholding further arms funding
–They will have a Ukraine avatar on their social media profile, but will not care too much where those arms come from to sustain this war
–They will complain bitterly that the UK has become a low wage, service sector economy, and will bemoan the lack of skilled, well-paid jobs for working class people in industries like engineering
–They will say things like “Germany still has a manufacturing industry but we just have McJobs”, yet when we try to develop industries like aerospace and defence, they criticise them for being carbon intensive or unethical
–They will say things like “Thatcher closed the mines and destroyed this country’s industrial base” yet when manufacturing companies in high-value industries try to expand they are damned for being polluters and unethical
–They will constantly demand high levels of public spending on things like NHS and welfare yet are openly critical of industries like financial services, aerospace, defence, and oil and gas, which generate most of the tax revenue that pays for this public spending
–They will bemoan the fact that Brighton has a dearth of well-paid jobs, and lament that so many have to commute to London for work (which is more environmentally uniformly than working locally) yet fiercely resist any attempt to expand local businesses, develop new housing, and create local jobs
Too true. I suspect that there are other commonalities too as well as many others that do not even live here.
Wrt taxes…maybe look at how government finance actually functions. The “taxpayers’ money” cliche is economically illiterate.
Planning in this country is a joke. Why do we need to hear people’s personal perspective about what a company does which is not breaking any laws. It’s doing good trade and employment. If the idiots hadn’t noticed, there is a massive war in Ukraine with Russia and we should be expanding and building massive capacity in our arms sector. The Americans are out of the game, just like they were in the last 2 world wars yet we have to listen to this woke nimby dribble about how weapons are bad…. Please wake up and smell the coffee
The ability to defend yourself against an aggressor has saved many lives and nation.
At this it is apparent that weakness will be rewarded by conquest.
The precursor to this these days is to chip away at your intended target with destabilising influence from within. Weaken your opponent and their allies.
And they will say Enoch Powell was wrong when he said ” those that the Gods wish to destroy, they first drive mad”. We are now approaching the Mad stage.
Or like the US of A”holes bombing everything in the name of peace or “for the greater good” which we regularly get dragged into, USA, destroying everything for the last 150 years and wants everyone else to pay for it, especially GB.
Wars the UK was not dragged into by the US:
Crimean war
World war 1
World war 2
Suez crises (we dragged the french into that one)
Korea
Vietnam
Falkland Islands
Kosovo (we dragged the US into that)
Sierra Leone
Afghanistan (international coalition with a UN mandate)
Wars we were dragged into:
Iraq.
So… Not sure what your on about but maybe check in to the library and learn some history.
All these objections are about the nature of the business being carried out there. Which has nothing to do with planning. Councillors should judge the application on its merits, not on irrelevant political arguments.
A very fair point, David. People are, of course, entitled to their moral objections.
The article says:
‘Conservative councillor Samer Bagaeen, who is a professor of planning, has opposed the application as the extension is “in breach of planning law” and neither the policy nor economic development teams at the council had commented on the proposals.’
So from that it would seem that there actually are sound planning objections to this.
It’s not in the remit of the Planners to take into consideration most of those objections.
Thay have no place in the planning process.
If the permission is refused on those grounds it will be approved later via appeal to central government.
Putin must be in stitches seeing a manufacturer of defence materials being given a hard time in the uk! For the uk, Europe and much of the world it is imperative for manufacturers to be unimpeded in order to support Ukraine.
Probably about time planning for national security and infrastructure was removed from local government. Look at the HS2 disaster, look at the wind turbine nonsense. Everything takes sooo long to build because gene and Keith don’t want the view from their side window disturbed by something half a mile away…. Things like this should take no more than 6 months to push though. The councils in the area that something of the above is being built in should have a voice, but not a very loud one. Then we might actually get some new train lines, roads and factories built.
No doubt the notorious antisemite Tony ‘tiny’ Greenstein is snivelling round the edge of this. Had he ever had a proper job?