Planning policies are bananas

THE attitude toward development in the corridors of power in Brighton and Hove can be summed not so much as Nimbyism but Bananas - Building Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything.

Last month, councillors binned a proposal for 85 homes on a green field site on Ovingdean. The plans from the Pegasus planning group included 71 homes and 14 apartments, with 40% of properties designated as affordable housing and eight aged-restricted flats for more than 60 residents on the council housing waiting list. The councillors put the plight of slow worms and lizards ahead of families struggling to live cheek by jowl.

This is unlikely to go down well in Whitehall where officials insist that the ‘urban fringe’ around the city can accommodate more houses. They have ordered that no stone is left unturned. Laura Graham, the government inspector, said the “overall impression” was that Brighton and Hove City Council had not looked seriously at some sites because of the “desire to resist development” and a “more rigorous analysis of the urban fringe sites” could find more potential space for homes.

For once the mandarins have a point. As Tony Mernagh, executive director at the Brighton and Hove Economic Partnership, has pointed out, getting a consensus on building on green fields in an election year is asking a lot.

But the shortage of homes in the city is too serious to be subject to the short term opportunism of here-today gone-tomorrow politicians.

Councillors should show some leadership, swallow hard and make politically unpalatable decisions.

Their inaction will have grave consequences. Recently I was shown around Phase One in Oriental Place by Andy Winter, chief executive at the Brighton Housing Trust.

The building provides an opportunity for the most desperate and vulnerable people in the city to start to rebuild their lives. He told me there are around 115 people sleeping rough on the city’s streets and that nearly all have a local connection.

People who do not have that connection are relocated, he said. There are many reasons why people become homeless and the lack of affordable housing in the city is one of them.

The slow worms and lizards may rejoice but the councillors’ refusal to build more homes is having a disastrous impact on mental health services, accident and emergency units, policing and education.

No more bananas decisions - it’s time to build the city’s future.

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