Royal Mail plans due before councillors next week

Councillors are being urged to approve a planning application for a new Royal Mail depot in place of former farm buildings in Patcham.

The plans for Patcham Court Farm are due to go before Brighton and Hove City Council’s Planning Committee on Wednesday 4 September.

The Royal Mail wants to demolish the existing farm buildings, in Vale Avenue, and build a distribution centre with “associated access, parking, landscaping and infrastructure”.

But the council has received 1,163 individual objections to the application, with representations from Brighton and Hove Wildlife Forum, the Brighton Society, Patcham and Hollingbury Conservation Association and the Patcham Local History Group.

Their concerns include the effects of more lorries in the area, increased pollution, the effects on neighbours and the potential contamination of the drinking water supply for much of Brighton and Hove.

Since the proposals were put forward in 2021, people in Patcham have campaigned against the project, holding protests outside Brighton Town Hall and Hove Town Hall during council, cabinet and planning meetings.

Campaigners are particularly concerned about the potential pollution of groundwater sources under the farm because the area supplies so many people with their drinking water.

They also fear the effects on the sewers in the village which are already visibly overloaded.

Drainage expert David Harris, who worked for Brighton Borough Council as a drainage surveyor, has shared his concerns about the potential risks of the project.

He shares a daily alert with Patcham residents, monitoring groundwater levels to warn people when their cellars are likely to flood. And excess water can rise high enough to cause surface flooding.

The octogenarian said: “The infrastructure downstream can’t stand it. We are so close to flooding now across the whole year. It occurs in the winter but there are increased incidents of flooding.

“When the groundwater floods, it inundates the sewers, bringing sewage to the surface, creating a health risk. It’s not morally possible to develop that site. It cannot stand it.”

A flood risk assessment for the Royal Mail scheme by the engineering consultancy Mott MacDonald said that the “impermeable area” on the site would more than double if the scheme went ahead.

Mott MacDonald recommended that the site be developed as though it were greenfield land rather than a brownfield site with drainage routes.

The former Green MP for Brighton Pavilion Caroline Lucas objected twice to the application, stating her concerns about the risks to the water supply. She also said that the transport assessments failed to take into account the Royal Mail’s business model.

Two of the Conservative councillors for Patcham and Hollingbury ward, Alistair McNair and Anne Meadows, have also sent two objections.

They raised concerns about parking, bus services, the environmental effects and the stability of the land which has sinkholes, fissures and voids.

In one of their letters, the two ward councillors said: “The parking provision is inadequate for up to 400 employees on-site, with just 85 bays available.

“This is a highly residential area already lacking in parking provision. The area acts as an unofficial park and ride area used by those who then car share and there is football parking which spills over into this area.

“The Royal Mail proposal has already shown in their own submissions that 46 per cent of staff will use their cars for convenience.

“This is because there is no adequate bus service for the early morning shifts and there is still a considerable walk to the site from the nearest bus stop which the proposal claims are merely 700 meters away.”

The Brighton and Hove Conservation Advisory Group also objects to the application.

Thirteen individuals have sent letters or emails in support of the application because it would make use of a vacant site, reduce the number of lorries travelling down London Road and reduce pollution in the centre of Brighton.

The Planning Committee is advised to be “minded to grant” planning permission subject to agreements which would need to be completed by Wednesday 27 November.

The “heads of terms” would include a five-year travel plan, live bus information for delivery office staff in the canteen and a deal with Brighton and Hove Buses to divert early morning 5 and 5A buses for at least a year.

The Royal Mail would also be expected to pay almost £65,000 towards the cost of work on the A27 junction at Patcham.

It would also have to create a new site access from Vale Avenue, widen several footpaths, create a pedestrian refuge on the A23, two new pedestrian crossings in Vale Avenue and improve nearby bus stops.

And the Royal Mail would have to pay almost £34,000 to fund an air quality appraisal and £19,500 towards the cost of biodiversity net gain monitoring.

A “developer contribution” of £20,725 would go towards training and apprentice placements.

And the site would not be occupied until an external light design strategy was submitted because the area is a breeding and resting site for bats and dormice.

Lighting on the site, which covers 1.57 hectares – or almost 4 acres – must also not adversely affect the South Downs National Park Dark “Skies Reserve” status.

If the project goes ahead, the Royal Mail sorting offices in North Road, Brighton, and Denmark Villas, Hove, will be freed up for housing.

The council would also generate about £8 million income from a 125-year lease on the farm site although a lease has not yet been agreed.

The possible sale of the site was to be considered at a meeting in July 2022 but the discussion was pulled and the matter has not been come up for agreement since.

The Planning Committee is due to meet at 2pm on Wednesday 4 September at Hove Town Hall. The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.