A date has been set for the council’s Planning Committee to decide whether to approve plans for a new King Alfred swimming pool and leisure centre.
Brighton and Hove City Council has scheduled an extra Planning Committee meeting to discuss the £65 million scheme at Hove Town Hall on Wednesday 29 July.
The council is in the process of preparing the ground to build a replacement seafront leisure centre in Kingsway, Hove.
The planning application includes new swimming pools and sports facilities on the part of the site occupied by the car park and former ten-pin bowling alley.
Six hundred comments have been left on the council’s website – 534 objections, 45 in support and others that are either mixed or neutral.
The building design has been described as “blocky” and families have criticised the lack of a lagoon-style leisure pool.
Some comments welcome the scheme despite reservations about the design and loss of facilities while others want the council to refurbish the existing 1930s building.
The Brighton Society has objected, raising concerns about the finances, size and impact on heritage of a site “within the setting” of the Old Hove, Pembroke and Princes and Cliftonville Conservation Areas.
The society said: “It is not ‘cutting edge’ or ‘state of the art’, rather a mimic of art deco at the front (the beach side) and overwhelming and unwelcoming blank walls on the west and north sides.
“The east side will face what appears to be six tower blocks. For the applicant to add that ‘the proposed design and layout has been carefully and efficiently designed with reference to the existing character of the surrounding area’ is an affront to local residents and heritage groups.”
The chair of the Dolphins Disabled Swimming Club wrote to support the plans, saying: “The current facilities and amenities at (the King Alfred) have helped many of our members.
“But the building is old, frail and experiencing many challenges with pool and shower temperatures, accessibility for our more severely disabled members and general hygiene issues with showers and drains.
“I have been involved with the consultation and development planning meetings and believe that the new development will provide much-improved services compared to what the current complex can even with refurbishing, as some people are suggesting.”
The extra Planning Committee meeting is scheduled to start at 2pm on Wednesday 29 July.
No comment from Councillor Alan Robins on his “world beating” and “iconic” new £65m KALC hub leisure centre plans?
It seems the Dolphins Disabled Swimming club only supported the new KALC plans until they actually studied them in detail as they subsequently objected on 26/05/26.
“Comments for Planning Application BH2026/00490
Application Summary
Application Number: BH2026/00490
Address: King Alfred Leisure Centre (part) And Public Car Park And Lawn West Of Hove Street
Kingsway, Hove BN3 2WW
Proposal: Redevelopment of western part of existing leisure centre and public car park to provide
new leisure centre (F2 use) to include: swimming pools, sports hall, gym/fitness suite, childrens
soft play, event spaces, cafe and undercroft car park accessed from Hove Street. Associated hard
and soft landscaping, public realm works and highway infrastructure. Relocation of existing
seafront shelter. Provision of temporary public car park on part of lawn to west of Hove Street
during construction (2 years).
Case Officer: Maria Seale
Customer Details
Name: Not Available
Address: Not Available
Comment Details
Commenter Type: Organisations
Stance: Customer objects to the Planning Application
Comment Reasons:
– Poor design
Comment: I was involved in the consultation process by the KA Development Team and
Architecys. They attended Dolphins Disabled Swimming Club Session to understand our club
members’ vastly varied needs due to a wide spectrum of disabilities due to simple old age to
strokes, accidents, musculoskeletal surgeries, etc. and gave me the assurances the access to the
pool will be designed to meet the needs. I now find they listened but did not hear, they came to
see but totally ignored the member’ disabilities and needs. Instead of the walk in ramp access to
the pool they have designed in roman steps which are not suitable for those who can hardly lift
their feet. The steps are not suitable for pool wheelchairs for access. One Disabled pod instead of
the ramp means only one person can be lowered at a time which will cause lost time for the
session’s activities. The number of Disabled parking bays are not enough from what I can see
from the plans. For these reasons, while I support the new building for KA, I object to the proposed
plans on behalf of Dolphins Disabled Swimming Club”
Other objections to the KALC planning application of note, notwithstanding 92% of the public.
CAG – Conservation Advisory Group
Save Britain’s Heritage
Brighton Society
Regency Society
Hove Civic Society
East Sussex County Council
It would be a dereliction of public duty to plunge ahead with so many issues still outstanding. And NOT learning any lessons from the i360 disaster, which BHCC allegedly commissioned an expensive report at taxpayer’s expense to learn from.
Misleading. It appears that multiple members of Dolphins have commented, each providing their own thoughts on the design.
Your misleading the public, your a labour member Ben. Closely associated with this administration. Your not a born and raised brightonian your compromised.
You can evidentially see this is the case on the planning portal, where several comments have been made by various people, stating they are members of the Dolphins, on the first several pages of comments.
What a strange, and easily disputable thing to claim?
https://share.google/2KEx35XZygta3kkps
Spot the Labour Council apologist! (It ain’t difficult)
Personally, I find the consultee comments the most interesting parts of feedback. Specifically, I was reading the Urban Design comments; which suggest amendments to the design. Amendments to the design seem to the common thread in the articulated feedback more generally, and echoed in some of the more constructive conversations I’ve had with individuals on here, too.
https://share.google/2KEx35XZygta3kkps
A half-baked, overpriced plan by a compromised closed shop council on a sticky wicket who have left the manifesto they were elected on far behind and only care about the towerblocks they won’t discuss. It is clear they don’t give a gnat’s chuff about whatever shipping container undersized leisure hub results from this charade. They just want to get it through as quickly as possible before their administration falls next May.