Stanmer Parking Proposals

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Madeira Terraces restoration - architects appointed

BHCC have awarded the contract for the architects that will lead the design team for the first phase of restoration to Purcell Architecture Ltd.

Purcell are known for their experience of restoring heritage sites and incorporating environmental sustainability into their designs.

They also have extensive experience with heritage architecture and cast-iron structures, with a good understanding of the challenges involved in bringing sustainable practices to a heritage restoration project.

Their portfolio of restoration work includes major heritage sites, such as the Houses of Parliament, the Elizabeth Tower (the tower that hosts the bell Big Ben) and Canterbury Cathedral.

Read on.

Madeira Terraces restoration - the extra funding

A carbon neutral city in 10 years

BHCC have committed us to becoming carbon neutral by 2030, 20 years ahead of the UK government’s target of 2050. As only 2.5% of the city’s emissions come from the council, this can only be achieved if everyone plays their part to reduce emissions.

A Climate Assembly will be set up and details of how this will be organised will be circulated in the next week. This assembly will bring together 50 residents to help shape how the city can address the climate crisis and recommend and prioritise actions for the city to take forward.

Following best practice, the members of the Climate Assembly will be randomly selected and will broadly represent the demographics of the city’s population. The assembly will involve people from across the whole city. Transport will be the subject of the first meeting.

Full council article.

Petition - Re-wild Hollingbury & Waterhall golf courses.

The leases of both golf courses expire in March 2020. The Tourism, Equalities and Culture Committee (TECC) will meet on 16 January 2020 to review tenders with a view to granting a 25 year lease. Extinction Rebellion Brighton urge TECC to take this unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ensure that the internationally endangered, wildlife-rich and diverse chalk grassland ecosystems of the two sites can re-generate and flourish, and that eco-friendly community food production and public health, wellbeing and recreational activities are promoted.

Read more & sign petition.

Valley Gardens - one year on.

Royal Pavilion Garden plans

Possible new entrance

Plans to restore and safeguard the historic Royal Pavilion Garden are back on track. An updated bid of £214,500 for National Heritage Lottery funding was sent in earlier this week. This bid is for funding to prepare detailed plans and an application for a full grant of £3.3 million.

After a previous application was turned down earlier this year the council was encouraged to re-apply by the Heritage Lottery assessors who noted the heritage importance of the project, the need to improve the garden and praised the community involvement which backed the bid.

The plans include:

• Improving access to the gardens for people with disabilities and a installing a new 'Changing Places' toilet
• New lighting and a secure boundary to address vandalism and anti-social behaviour
• Conserving and restoring listed lamp posts and balustrade, flowerbeds, paths, lawns and improving recycling, lighting and seating
• Overhauling the entrances, installing new gates and signs
• Creating a new programme of events, activities and volunteering opportunities
• Improving interpretation with maps and information boards, audio tours and an archival research project.

The National Heritage Lottery Fund is expected to make a decision in November. If agreed, the council will aim to submit the full bid in March 2021 with work starting in January 2022.

Improving and protecting the Royal Pavilion Garden is a key part of the Royal Pavilion Estate project where the council and Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival are working together to reunify the estate and conserve its heritage.

Phase one of the project is underway. The Royal Pavilion Garden is part of phase two.

All Saints, Patcham, to get a facelift.

12th.C All Saints is idyllically situated at the top of Church Hill, near to what was once Patcham Court Farm, its ancient barn,  dovecote and the site of what was once the village pond.  The turret spire can be seen from diverse points around Patcham. Its interior is beautiful but the external appearance is marred by cement render applied by the Victorians. This was probably well-meant but modern evidence suggests that in the long term cement render only serves to trap moisture which eventually migrates to the interior surfaces. 

A project to entirely remove the render, and make good using traditional methods, is expected to start on September 10th. The total cost is estimated to be £300,000 of which £100K has been match-funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

To aid the original survey for this work various 'windows' were cut in the render to reveal the surface beneath. They give some hint of the wide variety of materials used and the historical interest that has been hidden for so long.

Postscript. 

Some months ago the churchyard wall was found in danger of collapse due partly to the roots of a nearby sycamore. The tree has now been removed and the wall sensitively repaired by BHCC which owns the churchyard.

Talking about St. James' Street.

Brighton & Hove Police are inviting members of the local St James' Street community to work with us and @BrightonHoveCC We want to work more closely with people who live and work in the area to help enable us to develop ideas and ambitions for the neighbourhood

Valley Gardens update.

Toad's Hole Valley - FoE objections

New Planning Policy newsletter

BHCC planners have published the first of a regular series of newsletters dealing with planning issues around the city. 

Click here to read and follow links.

King Alfred Leisure Centre

Councillors Jacky O'Quinn and Robert Nemeth discuss the latest delay.

New bid for Pavilion Gardens conservation.

Google

BHCC are preparing to resubmit an application to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a grant to develop plans for the improvement and conservation of the Royal Pavilion Garden and get it removed from the Heritage at Risk Register.

Last year, following a consultation launched which attracted more than 1,300 responses, a bid was submitted for £194,000 to develop conservation plans ready for a funding bid for £3.3 million. Unfortunately, the bid was unsuccessful.

However, the Heritage Lottery Fund encouraged the council to re-submit, highlighting work that should be undertaken in the meantime.  This includes:

• Carrying out an access audit
• Developing designs of what a new boundary and improved entrances might look like
• Providing evidence of how multi agency working will tackle anti-social behaviour
• Providing more details of an activity programme, interpretation strategy and volunteer roles and skills.

The estimated cost of this work is £25,000 which would be met from the Royal Pavilion and Museums core budgets.

New housing off Coldean Lane

Planning application BH2018/03541 relates to a triangular green field site between the A27, Coldean Lane and Varley Halls. It provides for 250 residential dwellings divided between 2 seven storey buildings and 4 six storey buildings (including lift overruns). Also provided are 162 car parking spaces, 365 cycle parking spaces, new access from Coldean Lane and associated landscaping which incorporate areas of play/amenity space/active learning and substations.

Artist's view from the Coldean Lane entrance.

Present view from Coldean Lane

This is the largest development so far in the council's 'Homes for Neighbourhoods' programme for providing housing on council-owned land. The applicant is the 'City of Brighton and Hove Design & Build Company' which was incorporated in 2017 to implement this programme.  The documentation is high quality and extensively detailed.

Toad's Hole Valley proposals

Illustrative master plan

An outline planning application BH2018/03633 for the development of Toad's Hole Valley has been filed. It proposes: 880 much-needed dwellings; a secondary school; office/research/light industry units; a doctors' surgery community building, and public open space (including for food growing and play space).

It also includes  enhancements and alterations to the Site of Nature Conservation Interest to the east of the site and associated landscaping.

The most controversial proposal seems likely to be  the suburbanisation of King George VI Avenue.  Nearly all A23, A27 traffic destined for Hove and Portslade funnels down this road.  The 3 light-controlled vehicular accesses is a welcome reduction from the 7 suggested earlier for the development. This will still result in some rush hour delays but in the search for new housing maybe this is just one of the trade-offs the city has to accept.

Comments can be filed up until the application goes before the planning committee in the spring.

Shelter Hall shapes up

For where we are now see: Shelter Hall taking shape

Madeira Terraces - 2nd funding bid rejected

BHCC's second bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to support the Madeira Terrace restoration has been unsuccessful. As before the HLF said there was nothing wrong with the bid, but they simply don’t have enough funding for all the projects that applied. Their funding has been cut by 50% and this funding round was very competitive. The funding requests from all applicants greatly exceeded the budget available.

Work is  continuing on the first three crowdfunded arches (at the western end of the terrace) aiming towards an on-site start date of spring 2019.

At the start of January 2019, an office and community hub will be opened in a shipping container on Madeira Drive. This space will help raise awareness of the restoration project and offer a base to raise funds during events.

Heritage funding and other types of funding will continue to be sought possibly including another bid for HLF funding in March 2019.

Pride Village Party consultation

A consultation opens today on the future of the Pride Village Party which has been an annual popular event in and around St James’s Street for many years.

Up until 2015 the event was not organised officially by either the council nor by Pride itself, instead, visitors independently congregated in the area attracted by the LGBTQ+ bars and clubs that exist there. Since 2015 Pride organisers have managed the PVP and have put resources in place to manage the disruption to local people including additional security personnel, street cleaning and toilets. It is now a ticketed event limited to certain parts of St James’s Street and neighbouring roads.

The council is now seeking the views of residents and businesses on the future of the PVP, including whether it should continue, where it should take place and any other changes people would like to be made to the event.

The consultation closes on 31 Jan 2019 and the responses will be reported to the Tourism, Development and Culture committee in March 2019.

For a paper copy of the questionnaire leave your name & address  on 01273 292100.

A Plaque to Minnie Turner

The first of a series of plaques planned to commemorate the centenary of a significant period in the Women's Suffrage movement was unveiled today at 13 Victoria Road. Minnie Turner ran her boarding house Sea View as both holiday destination and refuge for suffragettes recovering from imprisonment, hunger-strikes and forcible feeding.

Minnie was present exactly 100 years ago today when suffragettes marching to Parliament were violently attacked by police for six hours. Also present were several of her former guests and, in particular, her boarder, Mary Clarke, the WSPU organiser for Brighton, who later tragically died.

Minnie Turner was for 12 years the Honorary Secretary of a branch of the Brighton Women’s Liberal Association and a member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). In 1908, frustrated at the government’s refusal to grant women the Vote, she joined the militant WSPU.

Minnie expressed great pride that more of the suffragette leaders and speakers had stayed with her than in any other home.

The plaque was funded by the City Council with a contribution from the Brighton & Hove Heritage Commission.

Members of the Women's History Group who researched and proposed the plaque.