A developer who ripped half the green tiles off his pub is now asking for permission to take off all the remaining original ones.
Charlie Southall says all the tiles on the Montreal Arms will be replaced – but wants to be able to do this with just replica tiles if necessary.
He is also being prosecuted by Brighton and Hove City Council for failing to put the tiles back in breach of a planning enforcement notice served on him in April 2022.
The latest planning application asks to vary two conditions – four and 17 – placed on planning permission to renovate the pub granted in June last year.
The former says details of tiles to be replaced, removed or reinstated need to be agreed in writing by the council.
The latter says all intact tiles not required to be removed for repair of steelwork should be retained unless otherwise agred by the council.
The planning statement, written by Mr Southall’s wife Viktorija Garskaite, says: “Efforts to discharge the conditions have been met with continued delay, ambiguity, and ultimately, non-determination.
“The passage of time and the LPA’s refusal or failure to make a decision now confirm beyond doubt that the current conditions are unworkable and obstructive. The applicant cannot implement the permission without breaching those conditions.
“The conditions therefore represent a genuine barrier to development. This is not hypothetical—it has been demonstrably proven through expert advice, statutory obligations (including CDM Regulations), and failed attempts at compliance.
“The conditions and the permission now cannot lawfully co-exist. The effect of the conditions is to nullify the permission itself.”
She also says the company has been unable to find any builders to undertake the work, any lenders to finance it, or any insurers to cover it because of the uncertainty over the tiles.
She says Mr Southall’s company Dragonfly Architectural Services Ltd has submitted details of the tiles which need to be removed to renovate the pub – which includes the vast majority or all of them – but the council has refused to sign them off.
This refers to a previous application to discharge the conditions, made in February, which has not yet been decided.
Council heritage officer Colin Bannon’s official response to the February application says the photographic survey submitted to satisfy condition four is acceptable and and amount of tiles proposed for removal is also accepted.
He says care must be taken when removing tiles which are intended to be put back, and he says while the tile samples provided are acceptable in terms of colour, the proposed size is not clear, and so bespoke samples of the size of tile proposed should also be submitted.
The tile samples were provided by specialist tile manufacturer Craven Dunnill Jackfield, which Mr Southall says he has selected to provide replica tiles.
However, the council’s heritage department is only consulted on applications, and the final decision is up to its planning department.
Ms Garskaite asks that condition four no longer require permission to remove individual tiles, and condition 17 be varied to allow all the existing tiles to be removed and replaced, if necessary, by replicas.
Mr Southall is next due to appear at Brighton Magistrates Court on 18 August to enter a plea to the criminal charge of failing to comply with the enforcement notice.
No wonder he wants to use replicas, heritage-grade glazed tile restoration for a pub façade is a specialist, high-end process – that’s going to cost Charlie a lot. He’s been doing everything he can to evade this for years now.
Probably shouldn’t have ripped the tiles off on the first place then
Completely agree, but potentially their value was quite significant.
Can’t wait for him to be Infront of a judge. Book is going to be thrown at him. As for his wife’s use of the English language, big words and silly phrases don’t change the facts.
Bet she used AI to get that nonsense written.
Almost certainly, there are some big tells that it was AI-generated; repetitive emphasis is a particular highlight.
What do you get when you cross a weasel with a snake? A property developer !
So it’s all the Council’s fault that this hasn’t been finished. Nothing to do with him vandalising the pub in the first place. Idiot.
This guy needs to be hung out to dry. I can’t think of anyone that I’ve read about in local news that deserves more whole-heartedly to have the book thrown at him. His wife’s cryptic version of “it’s all the councils fault Charlie ripped off the tiles in the first place” made me chuckle. Trying to make something simple and indefensible sound really complicated by running it through chat-gpt in the hope that they’ll just say “oh well we can’t understand that jibberish, let’s just let him off”. Burn these scumbags to the ground!
Can he be barred from being a company director?
Potentially, if he’s found to have misconducted himself in the running of his company.
I hope these vandals get everything coming to them. No regard for the community..just after a fast buck.
So many property developers just like this dick. All big anti woke reform goons to a man.
The original green oily iridescent tiles can be reproduced at great expense-hence he wants to introduce a slightly “reproduction” style.
Think enamel sign and printed sign.
As I understand modern conservation work, creating replicas by destroying original surviving material is not correct, as with a Greek vase. You put something new where missing and the two are identifiable. So a Victorian brick wall would no longer have to have fake Victorian bricks infilled to missing areas, or reclaimed, but ‘honest’ new bricks (Grand Designs,London Festival orchestra I think). If he didn’t want to get into the really complex world of grade 1&2 restoration/conservation area law, maybe he shouldn’t have bought it, or trashed it. The owners of the wonky pub that got demolished have also learnt that “it’s too late guv, what do you expect me to do now” defence is tricky. Ditto a pub in London had to be entirely rebuilt. If he can’t do it he can sell at the current trashed price that reflects reduction in its value due to his decisions and let someone else do it. Regularly properties are sold at a loss where illegal work/extensions etc have to be rectified by buyer because seller hasn’t the funds to do it. If he wants to mount a publicity campaign to fight his case to defy planning he can employ Captain Tom’s daughter who I believe has extensive knowledge in this field.
Who wants to take bets that the original tiles were stripped and sold?
This slime’s mindset is representative of the rot that’s been slowly eating this country since the 80’s.
Those tiles certainly had value to them.
All this over some crappy green tiles it’s pathetic