Pictures and video of plans for a new multimillion-pound public sports centre and hundreds of homes on King Alfred site in Hove have been released today (Tuesday 2 February).
Brighton and Hove City Council and the developers have also been speaking publicly for the first time since Crest Nicholson and the Starr Trust were selected to deliver the project just over 10 days ago.
Under the plans the current 1930s sports centre would be demolished and replaced with modern public sports facilities.
The new sports centre is part of a comprehensive redevelopment of the site. It would include 560 flats, which would largely fund the sports centre.
Twenty per cent of the flats would be affordable homes aimed at alleviating the city’s housing shortage. There would also be community facilities and commercial space.
Images have been released of the overall development – the council said that these were indicative at this stage. More detailed plans will be worked up as part of public consultation, ahead of a planning application.
A computer animation of the sports centre’s interior has also been made public.
Council leader Warren Morgan said: “I’m pleased that we can now show residents the initial designs of what will be a high-quality but deliverable leisure centre on the King Alfred site.
“It’s important we consult with local residents. However, it is vital that we move forward with the much-needed and unavoidable replacement of the 80-year old facility, one that costs huge sums to keep running.”
Duncan Innes, regional development director at Crest Nicholson, said: “We’re delighted to have been selected by Brighton and Hove City Council, along with our partners the Starr Trust, to deliver the King Alfred Leisure Centre in Hove.
“Our proposals incorporate world-class leisure and community facilities set to benefit local residents, together with outstanding new mixed tenure residential properties in this enviable location on the Hove seafront.
“We look forward to working closely with the council and the wider local community to bring our proposals to life and deliver new investment and vitality to the local area.”
Rob Starr, chairman and founder of the Starr Trust, said: “When we received the news that we were selected to work with BHCC to deliver the King Alfred development I felt a mixture of relief and honour – relief that our hard work for the last three years has paid off and honoured to be trusted, along with our fantastic partners at Crest Nicholson, with such an important job.
“At the Starr Trust we are looking forward immensely to our proposed community hub bringing a real addition to community life – family and young people’s events, community activity, skills development and training, cultural activities and so on – as part of the scheme, contributing to a regenerated seafront to the west of the city that will be a joy for everyone.
“I know that the coming months and years will bring many challenges but we will do all we can to give the city the very best of us.”
I hope the public understands that these ARE just indicative drawings of the scheme. The Gehry 4 maidens that won Karis their redevelopment opportunity at King Alfred morphed into 2 wonky 25/26 storey towers with 13 storey blocks around them for the final plans and consent.
Looks good but will it really be like that, and homes affordable for who? Any social housing? And how much beach will be taken away from the public; sic i360, that NO residents wanted, with at least 50 to 75% of beach around it used by the corp. Another ugly building on the seafront? I do hope not.
Jeanne, no beach will be used – its all on the current site including the car park. We know that affordable isn’t that affordable any more, which is why we are working on delivering 1000 or more homes for rent at 60% of market rates. By May we will have begun construction on 240 of the first 500 council homes we want to build. Not enough but a move in the right direction.
Affordable housing on Hove sea front? What deception and lies! This is all about profit for developers! Try talking to local residents and council tax payers who will have to live literally in the shadow of this monstrosity. Where will these new residents park and go to the doctors or school? How many of the flats will be bought by speculators to sit empty? How can anyone contemplate making a Miami Beach or Benidorm out of Hove sea front? They should be strung up!
And how many people in need of rented housing will still have to wait if this development doesn’t happen. It isn’t the council’s fault that successive govenment’s policies have removed grant from social housing, forcing the % market rent mechanism. Maybe we should just pull the ladder up and not build anything anywhere and let the next generation go hang. The degree of nimbyiism in Brighton never ceases to amaze me and actually, picking up on another comment, plenty of sresidents are excited by the i360. I hope the council fully scrutinises every aspect of this development and keeps an open mind..
This scheme will only have a 20% ‘affordable’ component and the RSL will be unlikely to build for affordable renting. These days they tell us that reducing Govt grants to RSL’s means their affordable component has to be shared ownership – part buy, part rent. And shared ownership is a con that means paying over the odds and volunteering to pay (as leaseholders) towards improvements, repairs and maintenance over and above any annual service charges. A mugs game.
I have wondered to what extent the Development Agreement with the Council can be drafted to include a control on WHO flats are sold to. I would prohibit selling abroad if I had a say and try to get some of it bought for sheltered housing or even for residential care facilities. There are lots of ways sales could be angled and pitched towards areas of need rather than just the dreaded investment mob and overseas buyers looking for somewhere to safely park money whilst leaving spaces empty.
Why not take 50 designs and get the public to vote on them…the initial designs are hideous and at least the frank gehry buildings had some style. What we need is a style icon or something that looks Victorian not anonymous eyesores that will look dated before being built. Also they’re way too high and impose on the local residents. Help us to love the look of something we will have to look at and pass by every day. I bet if we got all the architecture students in the uk competing for a design that spoke to our aesthetics we would come away with a functional and practical building and one that pleases locals and ideally attracts more visitors to help create jobs.
It’s not possible to tell from these drawings whether it will be possible to have the new leisure centre completed and open before the old one is demolished.
There is room on the site envelope to do this, and it is what ought to happen. Having one swimming pool (the Regent) for the whole of Brighton and Hove while this project takes shape is unacceptable.
The risk of this whole project going belly-up before it is completed (not that unlikely given the uncertain outlook for the global economy) also needs to be mitigated.
The KA is an important leisure amenity and the health and fitness of residents need to come before the convenience of the developer.
In an interview on The Vote on Latest TV Cllr Robert Nemeth said there would be a two-year period without a centre in place.
The scheme layout puts the new centre on the RNR site which is interesting. It does mean that, in theory, the new one could be built before the old one is demolished.
There are ground condition surveys and serious data acquisitions needed for foundations for this project – something that was avoided by Karis and shown up by a professional engineer in his speech contribution at the planning committee meeting on 23 March 2007.
It begs the question of how much ground clearance would be needed ahead of any building and to provide proper reports for the planning stage.