A man who was prosecuted for failing to put back tiles he ripped off a Brighton pub has asked a court to make the council pay his costs after the case was withdrawn.
Charlie Southall told Lewes Crown Court the council had been unreasonable to pursue the prosecution after a structural engineer it commissioned had said it was possible the tiles on the Montreal Arms would need to be removed for structural work to take place.
The engineer, a director of Stephen Wilson Partnership, had emailed the council on 3 July, 2025 to say that as far as he could see there was nothing to challenge in a report submitted by Mr Southall as part of one of several planning applications he has made in relation to the Albion Street pub.
This was a day before the court summons was sent to Mr Southall as a result of the council applying to the court for a summons on 14 May.
He also said both councillors and Brighton Pavilion MP Sian Berry had put inappropriate pressure on the council to prosecute him – adding that Ms Berry had subsequently apologised.
Representing Brighton and Hove City Council, Edward Elton said the SWP email was not expert opinion agreeing with Mr Southall’s position, but instead stated they did not have the necessary expertise to make that call.
“Councillors are responsible to their voters and they eel that very legitimately. MPs feel the same level of need and perhaps they all have an eye on the next local election when they would like those voters to vote for them again.
“It would be a calumny to suggest that anything except the prosecutors full code test [whether there was enough evidence and that the prosecution is in the public interest] would be in play here.”
He said after a planning inspector ruled the council had acted unreasonably in refusing an application in November, the council had taken advice from a planning barrister, and the prosecution had not stopped at that point, so it was not true to say the council did not review the prosecution once it was underway.
And he said in order to award costs, the judge would have to find not just that most or some prosecution lawyers would disagree with the decision to prosecute, but that it was “so starkly improper” that none would – a bar which was not reached here.
He also highlighted issues with some of the submissions Mr Southall had put before the court, adding: “I make no criticism of Mr Southall for not being a lawyer.
“The problem with Chat GPT is that it cannot always tell the difference between jurisdictions .. He cuts parts of sentenced repeatedly in his documents whereas if you have the full sentence …”
In responding to the points Mr Elton raised, Mr Southall took most umbrage at him pointing out that since the tiles had been removed in April 2022, no more work had been done.
He said: “That upsets me. I complied with the stop notice partway through work which was necessary to facilitate the works and all expert opinion has confirmed that.
“To claim that I could have continued to do the works is completely wrong.”
He said the building’s steels had been corroded by the sea air, and were now “turned into filo pastry”. He said: “There was a point where I thought I would have to put the tiles back on this failing structure, but my structural engineer said this would be a dangerous step.
“This prosecution should never have been brought. By that point, the council knew it was impossible to comply with the notice.”
Judge Mark van der Zwart said he would email his ruling to the parties by 26 June.
Whats a pub tile developer ?
Its ALBION HILL……Hanover resident!??
In english ?