A plan to encourage more family homes, manage the spread of student houses and protect green spaces is due to go out to a public vote.
The goals form part of a wider neighbourhood plan for an area where student numbers have soared as the two universities – Sussex and Brighton – have grown.
Now, councillors have given the go ahead for a referendum, with the vote likely to take place in September.
The draft Coldean Neighbourhood Plan includes 16 policies covering housing, traffic and travel, design and crime prevention as well as open spaces, wildlife habitat protection and the environment.
At a Brighton and Hove City Council meeting, the draft plan won praise – as did the dedicated volunteers who put in five years of hard work, consulting neighbours and pulling together the 64-page document.
The Coldean Neighbourhood Planning Forum hopes that the plan will strengthen the area’s identity – and that people will turn out to vote for it. To be approved, it needs a simple majority.
Labour councillor Tobias Sheard, who represents Coldean and Stanmer ward, presented the draft neighbourhood plan to a meeting of the full council at Hove Town Hall yesterday (Thursday 23 July).
Councillor Sheard praised the team behind the project, the people of Coldean and the local businesses who helped to shape the plan.
He said: “After years of sweat, tears and blood – from the occasional paper cut – this local plan has passed its inspection and can now go to the residents for them to get their say on what their area looks like going forward.
“I just want to speak about the amount of work put into the neighbourhood plan by its forum.
“Its chair, Patrick (Lowe), is perhaps well known for his community work across the city from the Hove Civic Society to Stanmer Stakeholders.
“His hard work for each of these groups is well known – and it’s safe to say these pale in comparison to the amount of effort he has put into getting the Coldean Neighborhood Plan to the phase you see before you.
“This shouldn’t take away from the effort all members of the committee have put in. I’ve had the pleasure of working alongside Debbie (Annells), Anant (Suchak) and Jack (Moxley) as they have built the group into what it is today.”
During a consultation in June and July 2024, councillors were told that 50 people completed online surveys and 23 completed paper surveys. Two phone calls were received, there was a Facebook messenger chat, several emails and numerous conversations at a launch event and on stalls at other local events.
But Green councillor Raphael Hill said that, given the size of the community, there were still a great many people who had not engaged with the process.
Councillor Hill said: ”We should do better with trying to ensure with the referendum we get a high turnout.
“So while I am glad there have been many different ways of engaging in the consultation in the past, I think there’s more to be done with that.”
Conservative councillor Anne Meadows also recognised the hard work carried out by the people of Coldean and said that she hoped that more than 50 per cent of the people taking part in the referendum supported the plan.
Councillor Meadows said: “We will always support residents to take part and be a part of their neighbourhood, especially when it’s about inappropriate planning and protecting their open spaces”
Brighton and Hove Independent councillor Bridget Fishleigh said that she knew what the forum team had gone through, having been involved with the West Saltdean Neighbourhood Plan herself.
Councillor Fishleigh said: “I would always in the past encourage other councillors to start forums in their ward because that would show your residents that you do really care about the area you represent.
“But, sadly, the government has pulled funding for neighbourhood plans so we are unlikely to see any more come through in our city.”
Coldean Neighbourhood Planning Forum chair Patrick Lowe was in the public gallery in Hove Town Hall to hear the debate and see the unanimous vote in support of a referendum.
He said that backing for the referendum had come “after five years of hard work” and this had been acknowledged by the independent examiner Derek Stebbing and by the council.
During the five-year process, volunteers had raised more than £50,000 in cash and technical support grants to cover the costs.
Mr Lowe said: “The Coldean Neighbourhood Planning Forum has delivered a neighbourhood plan that protects Coldean and the surrounding area and its valuable green spaces from unwanted developments.”
He also said that the plan “inspires good planning applications and encourages more family-friendly homes while reducing HMOs” – and that would help the local school with pupil numbers.
Mr Lowe added: “Thank you to all Coldean residents and statutory consultees for their input and support during the extensive public consultations which are part of the complex process involved in creating a neighbourhood plan.”
