The Planning Committee meeting on the 6th June refused application BH2012/00982 for housing on the old Sackville Hotel site, Kingsway, Hove, on the grounds that it failed to respect the surrounding conservation area. The design was described as visually jarring.
The application was for five six-storey town-houses facing the sea. A separate block facing Sackville Gardens, to the right, would have had two flats and two maisonettes. Both buildings were of modern design. Other factors were; the failure to respect the existing building line in the side road, Sackville Gardens, and the west end of the town-houses being only half a metre from the site boundary. It was felt the latter factor would have compromised the redevelopment of 191 Kingsway next door. This seems poetic justice as, at the Planning Committee meeting in April, the present applicants were objecting to the plans for 191 on similar grounds. See: 191 Kingsway.
However apart from attending to these details, it is difficult to see where the architects are going next. Especially as Cr Hawtree, Chair of the Planning Committee avows they are not opposed to modern designs in Conservation Areas.
PS The applicants have gone to appeal, so the ball is out of the architects court.
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