Councillors were divided on a proposal to expand Brighton College as plans for new buildings were approved on the casting vote of the chair of the council’s Planning Committee.
A number of Kemp Town residents filled the public gallery to hear the debate as the school’s planning application was approved after more than two and a half hours of deliberations at Hove Town Hall yesterday (Wednesday 2 July)
A report advised Brighton and Hove City Council’s Planning Committee to be “minded to grant” the application because it complied with local and national planning rules.
The leading public school wants to build new classrooms on the former St Mary’s Hall site and convert its existing prep school site into boarding houses for 150 pupils aged 13 to 18.
Kemp Town resident Eve Vamvas spoke on behalf of people in the area who, she said, had experienced 20 years of disruption as the college had kept growing.
She said that with boarding fees at £63,000 a year, adding 150 students to the new boarding houses would make the community unbalanced.
She added that 92 per cent of people in the immediate area would be school boarders and the other 8 per cent residents.
Ms Vamvas said: “This application is all about Brighton College prioritising its expansion over the needs of people who live in Kemp Town.
“There has been much talk of its power and influence but we know that you will make a decision on the basis of principles of development, material planning considerations and the public interest.”
Labour councillor Tristram Burden, who represents Queen’s Park ward, said that the council’s planning policies required the development of balanced communities, with reduced inequality.
Councillor Burden said: “Residents in and around Queen’s Park and Kemp Town contend that this application is not in the public interest and is purely about the expansion of a business with a turnover of approximately £80 million, according to the Charity Commission.
“While listed as a charity, its goal is expansion, as espoused by their name change to Brighton College International.”
Labour councillor Gill Williams, who represents Whitehawk and Marina ward, said that she served an area with real inequality and deprivation which was cheek by jowl with very privileged, wealthy people, enjoying a really good education.
Councillor Williams said: “I can’t see anything for them but there does seem to be plans for a poor door in the sports hall for local community use.”
Labour councillor Gary Wilkinson, who represents Kemptown ward, raised concerns about traffic and said: “The proposed boarding house exit is sited directly opposite the entrance to the Brighton Trauma Centre.
“At peak times, even minor congestion could delay ambulances or fire vehicles – a clear breach of policies and it has potentially life-threatening consequences.”
Brighton College projects director Steve Patten said that the school had listened to neighbours and changed its plans after consulting them.
For example, the edge of a proposed building on the Belle Vue Gardens side of the planned boarding house site was pushed back to ensure neighbours kept their sea views.
Mr Patten said: “We can have a better impact on our city. This application is partly in response to a challenge the council put to us on impacting local housing.
“Our whole purpose for this is to avoid adding more pressure on more housing – not to have multiple arrangements to drop off and pick up.
“But to consolidate, regulate, manage and monitor to improve how we interact with the community and continue our council-agreed travel plan from previous projects.”
He said that the school was not an island but part of the local education family, sharing facilities and resources with the wider community.
After councillors spent more than an hour grilling Mr Patten and other representatives of the school on a number of issues from transport to equality, there was a tied vote on the planning application.
Conservative councillor Carol Theobald, who voted in favour, said: “I see there are no objections from outside bodies.
“It is reported there would be a reduction in highway impact, especially in Belle Vue Gardens and Walpole Road.”
Labour councillor Julie Cattell, a former chair of the Planning Committee, said that objections to pupils coming from outside the area could also apply to other big schools – Cardinal Newman, BHASVIC and Varndean College.
Labour councillor Liz Loughran, another former chair of the Planning Committee, raised concerns about equalities before voting against the application.
Councillor Loughran said: “I’m not keen on the scheme for the effects on the public realm (and) the effect on the roads in particular.”
Green councillor Sue Shanks also voted against the application and said: “In our planning policy, we are concerned about suitability, we are concerned about neighbours and community cohesion. There is an issue about how communities get on with each other.”
Labour councillor Alison Thomson, who chairs the committee, voted in favour of the plans and the application was carried on her casting vote.
At the St Mary’s Hall site, in Eastern Road, the plans include a new three-storey teaching block designed to look like a row of seven terraced houses, with gabled roofs and a multi-use hall.
The school could then create two boarding houses on the current pre-prep school site – also known as the Convent of the Blessed Sacrament site – in Walpole Road, Belle Vue Gardens and Eastern Road.
Extensions built in the late 20th century would be demolished as part of the project.
The 180-year-old independent school has 1,800 pupils aged 3 to 18, mostly from the BN postcode area.
It has 700 staff, employs 150 people and contributes £50 million a year to the Brighton and Hove economy. And half of its surplus funds bursaries for poor pupils, the meeting was told.
Brilliant news. What a fantastic win for our community!
As a genuine question, what are the benefits for the local area do you feel this will have?
More money spent in the local shops which helps the local economy and a more desirable area which benefits home owners. If Brighton College didn’t exist in the area the council would have put halfway house there instead with drunks and druggiesd! I know which I prefer as a local resident!
Interesting. Independent studies have shown that elite boarding schools, such as Brighton College, are economically self-contained, meaning their spending largely benefits internal services or national chains rather than the surrounding community. A one-off visit to a café or shop isn’t the same as a sustained local economic contribution.
You have no idea what would have been there if Brighton College didn’t exist, so that argument doesn’t make sense to me; it’s a false dichotomy.
They recently bribed some neighbouring assisted housing residents with free tea and cake one afternoon.
Not sure what else they’ve done for the community…
I mean it’s in the article. 700 staff. Employee an additional 150 people and contributes iro £50M PA to the local economy or to put it another way: 1 ( more or less) multi party, collosal fk up & tax liability to the tax payer.
Then we can add on additional local employment of builders & tradesmen for the demolition of old buildings and the construction of new ones. Irrelevant of the contractor selected & their location. The construction trade always draws on a sizeable percentile of local labour for cost and availability reasons.
Full time boarders typically have above typical high disposable income levels to spend within the local economy.
Lastly and as a general point. It’s s not a child’s ‘fault’ they have access to non-state/ public schooling. Whilst I won’t pretend that generational wealth isn’t often a factor. Many don’t come from some socially elite backgrounds. Two prime examples would be that for boarders military personnel have that as an option for their children under the covenant if the serviceman/woman has qualified via time served. And those children certainly are not all the sons or daughters of General, Admirals or Chief Marshall’s. The other is the placement of children with particularly complex SEND issues where the local education authority cannot provide the needed care and/or educational support. It’s a last resort most the time but I assure it happens.
Bad news for a couple of people who like a moan in kemptown, brilliant news for the city as a whole.
I mean, they had actual objections based on planning criteria, and a previous planning inspectorate decision, so it certainly wasn’t just someone “having a moan”. And considering it was a tied vote, their arguments must have been pretty well-founded, you have to agree.
I’m not convinced personally what the brilliant news is for the city as a whole; they’ve not promised anything like CIL to the city, and their interaction with the VSCE is minimal and fictitious at best.
I hope I am proven wrong, Dave. I really do.
Dave let’s hope you don’t need any emergency services especially an ambulance or emergency medical care while Brighton College construct this then. On top of the construction work already going on a stones throw away from the site the school have asked to develop. As this will have a knock on affect to an already busy area.
Also, while bearing in mind, the hospitals construction site is for a new, more modern, state of the art cancer centre covering patients from across Sussex as some of the most complex cancer care has to be delivered by highly qualified and specialist oncologists at the Sussex Cancer Centre.
However, a high proportion of cancer care for the local B&H patients is being delivered at the current premises in Bristol Gate, but they also deliver cancer care at the same place, for the more complex cases of people across Sussex but who live outside of the Brighton area.
The current cancer centre is outdated, cramped, small, no longer big enough to keep up with demand and the diagnosis, need for treatment and statistics of cancer rising, they need more space to deliver that care..
To rub salt in even more, the council refused to allow additional parking at the cancer centre when completed. Meaning people going for treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Of which some, patients have to attend the centre, day in day out for weeks on end for those kind of treatments. Will now have to park further away and walk further, not only to receive their treatment but after treatment to.
Oh… but you can get a bus I hear some say?
No. Most people on active cancer treatments especially chemotherapy, should not be doing that where possible, due to being more vulnerable to getting illnesses and getting sick. Buses aren’t the most hygienic and germ free of places or transport.
Yet, the premises that have just been approved for BC that is already in use by the school, continues to disrupts the flow of traffic on Eastern Road at certain times of the day, because the structure cannot cope with the cars accessing those premises meaning they then spill back onto the main road… but that’s okay. But people having cancer treatment have to park elsewhere?
Of course many people around the local area are up in arms about this decision.
Maybe if the council had considered letting the cancer centre be constructed and finished first. Then later on down the line, look to approve the schools plans while in the mean time, properly consulting with the local residents and businesses, including the hospital about BC plans. There would have been a more positive and willingness to agree to the college plans.
A huge oversight from both BHCC and BC.
Wealth over Health it seems….
“Maybe if the council had considered letting the cancer centre be constructed and finished first. Then later on down the line, look to approve the schools plans while in the mean time, properly consulting with the local residents and businesses, including the hospital about BC plans. There would have been a more positive and willingness to agree to the college plans.”
Planning doesn’t work like that.
The Committee can only consider the application in front of it.
it can’t say to the Hospital “you need to rebuild the site in a specific order’. An order which may actually make construction impossible because of the complex geography of the site.
Not can it delay another application from proceeding until another is completed so it can’t postpone the colleges application until such time as the hospital is finished.
Well in that case. The planning application would have been submitted at a similar time or after the Sussex cancer centre was already approved. As Sussex Cancer centre got approved on the 7th of May 2024. That then meant they had approval to knock down the remains of the old building at the hospital before starting from the ground upwards with the new centre. At the beginning of 2026. So surely when the council then received the application from BC. They should have rejected it. Too much construction work in a very short and busy stretch of road…
I’m sorry but life saving cancer care is far more important to build and modernise than a college who has a lot of space, good facilities and opportunity already. It’s only been about a year or two, since the college finally finished the construction around the back and side of the college.
Patience and understanding wouldn’t go a miss from both the council and college on this planning application. You mark my words. In about a year to 18 months time. Eastern Road will be gridlocked at certain times of the day. Because of the building work at the hospital and then the building work less than 500 meters up the road just past the main access road into the accident & emergency department and back of the hospital. That road will be absolute carnage.
Sorry but this is p*** poor planning from the college. And on the councils part, severe oversight and a want rather than a need. The hospital construction is a need. Hospitals need more space to keep up with demand, including good quality care and state of the art facilities. Cancer is on the rise more and more.
Thank goodness the wealthy people FINALLY managed to get their own way after being denied permission for a long time. This will surely benefit their already inflated coffers. They’ve built a theatre on their land (which seats over 300) and there’s not even one performance for the local community; it’s great to see the elite thrive in these tough economic times
Judicial review anyone? This stinks.
Not liking a decision isn’t grounds for a JR.
You need proper grounds such as their being a major error in the decision making process as well as proving it would have changed the final decision
And several thousand pounds even for the application let alone a potential hearing.
Brighton College are the most perfect neighbours for me.I’ve just completed one of my many walks home around Brighton College and you can hear a pin drop! It’s silent just like it has been since the middle of June and will be right up until September. It’s often silent over Easter and again during Christmas. They keep immaculate beautiful grounds. They help our neighbourhood to be safe by providing extensive security. They employ many members of our community. They keep our little cafes, shops and pubs in business where everywhere else is closing. They educate our future doctors and teach our next generation the importance of kindness. The pupils regularly clean our beaches. They provide local children with 125% scholarships. Seriously what type of neighbours would you prefer? Another Bingo Hall? Brighton College were here long before any of us and are the reason the area is so pleasant. The Council have not done a great job protecting or even maintaining anywhere else. I wished Brighton College were in charge of our Arches maybe we wouldn’t be in such a mess. Have you not seen what the council is doing or not doing with the rest of the city?
Spoken like someone on the BC Payroll.
That’s hilarious. I work in a newsagents so I’m very in tune to what the locals actually want and what the actual impact is.
Brighton College deal with customers , Brighton Council have to deal with a wide range of citizens and social issues.
I appreciate your romanticised defence of the institution, and there’s no doubt they’ve contributed positively in some limited areas. But this was a planning consultation, not a popularity contest.
Whether the school is silent during holidays or whether pupils clean beaches doesn’t speak to the core questions here: Will this development strain traffic and infrastructure? Has it been subject to open, transparent scrutiny? Is it proportionate to the area?
Planning decisions are made on evidence, not sentiment. Many people respect Brighton College, but still have valid concerns about overdevelopment. Both things can be true. The scholarship statement is a requirement, and a drop in the ocean, I’ve already mentioned why it’s a misrepresentation elsewhere.
“Brighton College are the most perfect neighbours for me.”
For you maybe but clearly not for others.
“They employ many members of our community”
Indeed they do and I know a couple of BC staff who tell me that they aren’t prefect employers.
“They keep our little cafes, shops and pubs in business where everywhere else is closing”
I certainly hope it’s not the pupils going the pub because that would be a sign of under age drinking.
“and teach our next generation the importance of kindness”
clearly failing from what other posters have said. Is blocking the pavement and being rude to people showing ‘kindness’ ?
“Have you not seen what the council is doing or not doing with the rest of the city?”
Which is a totally specious argument.