The council is preparing to take a developer who ripped tiles of his pub to court, Brighton and Hove News understands.
Charlie Southall hired friends to hack off distinctive green tiles from the Montreal Arms in Albion Hill in March 2022, days after abandoning a crowdfunder to raise money to restore it in the face of neighbourhood scepticism.
The council issued a stop notice that day to halt the work, followed soon after by an enforcement notice, which was upheld on appeal.
Mr Southall then had until July last year to comply – but this deadline was effectively put on hold after he was given planning permission to restore the tiles, reopen the pub and make changes to the flat above in June.
Since then the only public movement has been an appeal against strict conditions around how the tiles should be replaced – which he abandoned at the eleventh hour.
However this week, ward councillor Tim Rowkins told neighbours of the pub that much more was happening behind the scenes and an announcement should be expected “shortly”.
He said: “The situation has gone on for too long and needs a resolution.
“Whilst it may seem that nothing is happening, there is a great deal of work going on behind the scenes to move this forward.
“For now, I’m not able to say much as it may jeopardise any future legal processes, but we’ll be able to share more information shortly.”
His words came as the local Green party sent out a leaflet calling on the council to explain what is happening.
It said: “Despite requests from residents, nothing has changed. Your local Green campaigners Fiona, Jerome and Luke are speaking up and asking the council to explain why enforcement action has been delayed – and when they’ll finally act.”
Good. Charlie has been stringing along this process for nearly a year and seemingly has no intention of following the law. Therefore he needs to be made to.
How long has this been going on now,Charlie you’re the only one losing here,stop being a stubborn little boy,take responsibility for your actions and move on, I hope the next article on you in this paper is the last,move on son,let go.
Not ensuring this is returned is a dangerous precedent to set. If developers can do aa they please against the rules and than do as they please when they are held to account for it. Despite resident voice and council pressure. Than it’ll set the precedent for developers to do as they please (a precedent that is already becoming well established in the city). Let’s hope this situation can be used as an example that you cannot just flaunt the rules
Considering the number of “pre-work” applications that have been forced to revert over the last year, I’m not convinced that people are able to flaunt the rules.
Why is there a two tier legal system operating here.
If he has broken the law and he cannot hide the obvious then he, like anybody else, needs to comply or suffer the consequences. Do we trust “there is a lot going on behind the scenes”.. No. What does the court say that will make him pay. He knew not to touch it so must comply.
At last! The Council finally taking this vandal to court to explain himself and restore what was a lovely building with architectural significance.
Hopefully the same action will be taken against Britannia Hotels re. the Royal Albion Hotel.
It’s going to cost £100,000 to fix the tiles as hand made leaded oil tiles…so I imagine the idiot can’t get over how stupid he’s been.
I have a feeling it would be beneficial to have those replacement tiles verified independently.
Hello to.all,
I live just up the road and I can say that tiles were orrible and most of them broken and/or with holes.
So , i do not undestand all this legal process for some old and broken tiles.
Shame on all neighbors instead of helping the community is one against each other.
No good at all.
It’s because they were effectively protected, Simon. Charlie needed to gain permission before he did anything, but decided the rules didn’t apply to him, so now he has to face consequences which will involve restoring the titles.
Does that make more sense?
It’s a rather uninspiring area, but the green-tiled pub stood out as a focal point for the community, memories and local history. The underhanded and selfish decision to secretly destroy the tiles must be rectified, and the fraudster Charlie Southall must be held accountable.
Charlie Hunt
This developer is an absolute disgrace. Sue the pants off him.
he knew a lot of people wanted the tiles preserved. What he did was not only an act of vandalism, it was an act of malice