Work on a new blueprint for planning decisions in Brighton and Hove is expected to get under way, with leading councillors due to approve a timetable in the coming week.
The blueprint, known as the City Plan, is the latest in a series of planning policy documents shaping the future of Brighton and Hove by allocating sites for new homes, workspaces and other uses.
Members of Brighton and Hove City Council’s cabinet are due to meet on Thursday (14 May) when they are expected to approve giving notice that a new local plan is being prepared.
The new blueprint was previously known as City Plan 2041 – it will set out the council’s strategic planning policies until that year – and will replace two documents known as City Plan part one and part two.
City Plan part two, which was approved in October 2022, proved controversial for allocating “urban fringe” sites in Benfield Valley and Swanborough Drive for housing.
A newly published report said: “The intention is for the new plan to cover the existing administrative area of Brighton and Hove except that part which falls within the South Downs National Park.
“This is based on government advice that upcoming local government reorganisation (LGR) is not a reason to delay plan-making.
“And additional funding of £108,000 has been provided by government on the understanding that the council formally gives notice of the intention to the begin plan-making by (Tuesday) 30 June 2026, a step which includes confirming the area the new plan will cover.
“However, the outcome of (local government reorganisation) in Sussex is expected soon with the reasonable prospect of the outcome being the enlargement of the Brighton and Hove unitary authority.
“Further clarity is being sought from government on the specific circumstances facing the council in this regard, including whether the outcome of (local government reorganisation) should be awaited before giving notice so that the plan area can align with a future amended boundary.”
Once the council’s cabinet has agreed to publish a notice of intention, the council begins about four months of preparations – to include a “scoping” public consultation between July and September.
Last year, more than 700 people responded to the “key issues” consultation which was structured on the themes of
- Homes for everyone
- Sustainability and climate change
- A diverse and sustainable city economy
- Design and place-making
- Culture and tourism
- Healthy city and communities
- Biodiversity and green infrastructure
- Transport and infrastructure
The next phase is proposed to be a shorter document outlining what the City Plan is and the topics it will focus on.
A draft timetable indicates that officials would expect the plan to be finalised by spring 2028 before further consultation in May that year.
Councillors have already spent 18 months considering proposals to put forward in the plan.
At a Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting in October 2024, the Labour chair, Councillor Amanda Evans, shared her concerns about whether the homes built in the city were serving the population.
At the time Councillor Evans said: “Some … are flats built for the council at social rents and others are flats built for oligarchs to live in for one week a year. No one else can afford them – and they’re not equal value.”
Previous city plans had not taken into account new-style build-to-rent schemes, such as the Moda project, in Sackville Road, Hove. These were not on the cards when City Plan part one was drawn up.
The council’s cabinet meeting is due to take place at Hove Town Hall at 2pm on Thursday (14 May). The meeting is scheduled to be webcast.
More dictatorship in a democracy. The cabinet is acting ultra vires if they are doing this without a citywide referendum. This affects the whole city.
Doesn’t require a referendum. Has had several consultations. Not ultra vires.
With residents?
Yep.
More undemocratic treatment for us cattle-class electorate by an arrogant council who luckily won’t be in position to see their power-hungry plans come to fruition the way things are going. They have done everything they were NOT elected to do and which wasn’t in their local Labour Manifesto and almost nothing they were. If they want to find the reason for their unpopularity, it really is that simple. Listening to their electorate, emptying the bins on time, fixing the potholes and looking after the city properly plus keeping all its services running isn’t glamorous or sexy, but it’s what they were expected and elected to do. Instead they have wasted public money like there is no tomorrow and turned themselves into a Titanic cabinet. frantically re-arranging the deckchairs while they pretend everything is fine and the Sankey ship is not sinking for the simple reasons they refuse to admit. B&HCC have almost become a microcosm of their national leader and the dire situation he has gotten himself into through his delusional arrogance and thinking he was above listening to or serving his electorate.
In fact, Labour has pretty much completed everything in its local manifesto. Just taking from their document, the things they have achieved so far:
Free toilets, rejuvenation of the seafront, improved phone answering at the council, zero-tolerance for rogue landlords, drive-up rental standards, convert empty buildings into homes, build more council homes, regulate short-term holiday lets, ensure there are more genuinely affordable homes to buy and rent, promote car clubs, better bus routes, support food banks and community
kitchens, free school meals, boost apprenticeships, support adult education, recruit more local foster parents, enable more social prescribing, create dementia-friendly spaces, improve access to the beach and lighting, improve night safety, work towards a gender equality strategy, and a zero tolerance to discrimination whilst actively promoting equality for all.
You might not like them, Tracy, but you cannot say accurately that they didn’t achieve their manifesto. That’s the true delusion here. One you manifestly repeat.
https://www.brightonandhovenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Brighton-Hove-Labour-Party-Manifesto-Local-Elections-2023-Web.pdf
Tracy
What ‘undemocratic treatment’?
This cabinet report is basically the start of the process for producing the new plan
There will be a consultation phase
Just because there isn’t a referendum doesan’t make it undemocratic. The law doesn’t require one and the council has the power to vote on it.
Usual civil service planning for planning for planning, going around in circles effectively delivering very little whilst costing the tax payer £100Ms.
Maybe, but it is still important to have a city development plan, right?
When are the citizens of brighton gonna be asked what we want?
In the consultation phase!
No doubt more gerrymandering will be part of the plan as Pavilion is filled up with even more Student accommodation. Such a shame the city has been ruined on the bonfire of political vanities.
The city plans has nothing to do with council ward or parliamentary boundaries