LIST IT!

Brighton and Hove Council has written to Culture Secretary Chris Smith asking him to list the imposing chateau on the seafront at Kemp Town.

The council has publicly backed our campaign to stop the bulldozers moving in on the 101-year-old building, home to 40 elderly and frail residents and 50 care home staff.

Last night we stepped up our fight by sending a whole series of photographs to Mr Smith.

The pictures, which show the inside and outside of the home, will be critical in proving it stands as impressive today as when it opened in 1898 and should be listed.

In his official letter to Mr Smith, Coun John Balance, executive councillor for the environmental services department, urges the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to include the home in the statutory list of protected buildings.

In an unprecedented step, he was asked to make the move by the council's own planning

committee, the group that will debate the application by Bovis Retirement Homes to pull down the home and build 67 sheltered flats in its place.

Usually, members of council planning committees refuse to pass judgement on applications until they have been formally decided.

But last night Coun Balance said: "We wholeheartedly back the Argus' campaign to save this building. We consider it to have sufficient merits to be included in the statutory list.

"It has sufficient architectural merit and it is also of historical interest to the people of Brighton. It should be saved."

Kemp Town MP Des Turner, who has campaigned to save the home, said: "I welcome this step.

"Normally, the planning committee, because they have to operate within the law, cannot take any proactive measures concerning planning applications. This is a very unusual step.

"I will now also write to Chris Smith to back their call."

English Heritage will consider the listing application, working from photographs of the home and a site visit, before making a recommendation on whether it should or should not be listed to Chris Smith.

Home manager Catherine Gennaro was thrilled with the news. She said: "This is great. I told my staff we must take our battle one step at a time, and this is a very positive step."

She was due to meet staff and health bosses for an urgent meeting at the home last

night.

She said: "Now I can tell all my staff that the council is on our side.

"If we can get the building listed, the planning process will be interrupted and Bovis may decide not to proceed and we can stay put."

Meanwhile, Coun Geoffrey Theobald has also written to Chris Smith.

Coun Theobald, the leader of the council's opposition Conservative group, says: "I am a chartered surveyor and I strongly believe the building is of the architectural merit required for inclusion on the statutory list."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.