Planning application BH2010/03739 for the development of land on Basin Road North shows 6 separate "lozenge" shaped blocks. They are arranged like louvres to funnel the prevailing south-west wind on to pairs of vertical helical windgenerators between each block. Solar panels are installed on the roofs. (Fig.1).
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| Fig.1 |
The 'lozenges' rise 5½ storeys above Kingsway (Fig.2) and there are 1½ storeys below it for car-parking, with access from Basin Road.
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| Fig.2 |
The development is to be sited between Britannia House to the east and Magnet showroom to the west, which latter will be incorporated and converted to warehousing. It is not unattractive but I suspect will not find much favour with nearby residents on Kingsway (Fig.3) or in Derek Avenue (Figs.4), which will have their open aspects to the south very restricted.
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| Fig.3 |
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| Fig.4 |
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| View of proposed development down Derek Avenue |
No one has an automatic right to a view of course, but developments that change the character of an area surely need special scrutiny. Kingsway at this point is not only a coastal road, open to the south, but also runs alongside a harbour, and from the road one can glimpse mastheads, cranes, funnels, and the castellations of Hove Sea Villas. All an indication that one is somewhere a little different from the norm. Most people now, even more in the future, will inhabit urban landscapes. Town planners should have some regard for keeping the built environment varied and characterful in a way that signals a sense of place. Helical windturbines are quirky but whether they are an adequate substitute for what will be lost is doubtful. One also wonder whether, sited so close to a busy road, they will offer distraction and danger to passing drivers.
I used to live in Roman Road, opposite the pub. It never was a beautiful aspect and Kingsway was always busy even in the 60's and '70's.
ReplyDeleteProposed build would be on the site of a large retail garage which appears to have been derelict for a number of years. Even so its size and scale will dwarf the neat 20'/30's semis in the residential roads opposite.
Hove Sea Villas, with their private beaches, full of mystery to a young lad.
It is a very pleasant area away from Kingsway.
ReplyDeleteI think you are referring to the old Caffyns site, which is behind the hoarding to the right in Fig.3, and you are right about its size. The proposed Aldrington Basin development is on the opposite side of Kingsway, blocking it off from the south.