COUNCILLORS have approved outline plans for 14 houses on a patch of scrubland in Portslade.

Brighton landlord and property developer Mike Stimpson will still need permission for the final layout and detailed designs at a later date.

His company Mike Stimpson Properties applied to Brighton and Hove City Council for outline planning permission for the site to the south of Fox Way and west of Foredown Road.

And at Hove Town Hall, the council’s Planning Committee voted unanimously in favour of the scheme.

The plans are for seven two-bedroom houses and seven more with three bedrooms – but no affordable homes.

Councillors were told that Mr Stimpson was planning another scheme on a neighbouring plot and would build affordable homes there.

Green councillor Sue Shanks said: “This is a good site, I would have thought, for affordable housing. So I’m a bit concerned that we’re waiting until they develop something else which may not happen.

“I would have thought that would be more appropriate on the existing site.”

She was told that, at most, there would be just four affordable homes on the site – too few for a housing association to want to manage.

Labour councillor Daniel Yates had concerns about access to the site and said that improvements to the pavement would be needed.

He said that the proposed scheme looked like making good use of the site, adding that the density “doesn’t look out of keeping” with most of the neighbouring properties.

Green councillor Leo Littman, who chairs the Planning Committee, said that initially he had concerns – in particular about ecological matters – but that now he welcomed the scheme.