Decision due on 159-flat Shoreham development up to nine storeys high

The recently amended plans would see 159 apartments in blocks of up to nine storeys built at the site along Ham Road, next to the Duke of Wellington pub.

The Civic Centre was demolished in 2017 and Adur District Council’s planning committee will decide whether or not to approve the redevelopment plans this week.

Due to the scale of Hyde Homes’ proposals, as many as 200 objections were received.

Original plans for 171 flats in buildings up to 11 storeys tall have since been amended to bring the maximum height down to nine storeys and the total number of apartments to 159.

Block A, to the west, would be between three and six storeys with block B, to the east, between five and nine storeys high.

This would make the nine storey block the second tallest building in the area (35.3 metres) after the approved Free Wharf development (36.3 metres).

Although ‘less than standard’ 60 parking spaces would ‘reduce car dependency’, according to the council’s planning officers, and the development would have 190 cycle spaces.

Highways authority West Sussex County Council did not object but said pressure for on-street parking ‘may increase’.

“An on-street parking survey of the local area has been undertaken and identifies a total occupancy of 62 per cent of spaces overnight,” WSCC said.

“During the AM period spaces were at capacity.

“Given the proximity of the site to the town centre, sustainable transport options available and existing parking restrictions around junctions, no highway safety concern would be raised to the level of parking provision.”

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Currently, at least 30 per cent of the apartments will be affordable.

But Hyde Homes has signed a ‘memorandum of understanding’ with the council which says 100 per cent of the apartments will be affordable if Homes England funding is forthcoming.

If this goes ahead, 38 per cent of the apartments would be socially rented and 62 per cent would be shared ownership.

Adur District Council’s head of housing supported the plans and said the proposals could help to ‘significantly reduce’ the housing waiting list.

“Given the acute affordable housing shortage in the district, this application

proposing a significant proportion of social rented flats would be very welcome,” they said.

A landscaping plan shows a new tree-planted verge along Brighton Road in addition to a green roof and solar panels.

The footpath would be realigned immediately in front of block B and a wider pavement along Brighton Road aims to accommodate a planned A259 cycle path linking Shoreham to Brighton.

But locals and community groups plan to protest against the plans on Wednesday.

Their concerns include the size of the development, ‘too few’ parking spaces, a loss of privacy for neighbours, and the capacity of the sewage system.

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The Shoreham Poplar Front was also established to protect a tree on the edge of the site which will be cut down to make way for the development.

This sparked a collection of local groups to form Adur Communities Together (ACT) to oppose the development.

On Friday (February 25) BBC broadcaster and author George McGavin visited Shoreham to show his support for the campaign.

Speaking on Friday Mr McGavin said: “It’s a great shame that we have to do this at all.

“We are in the middle of a climate and ecological disaster.

“This tree is not particularly ancient, it’s not particularly valuable, but it’s your tree.

“If we can’t save one tree, what’s the point?”

Developer Hyde Homes said it would not be possible to save the poplar.

Andy Hunt, associate director of land and planning at the Hyde Group, said: “We made the decision to remove the tree to provide the homes that are so desperately needed for the local community.”

Although a tree preservation order was not granted for the tree, the council’s tree officer said it was a ‘prominent and and established feature’ which ‘cannot be easily replaced’.

They said the replacement trees would ‘reflect its importance, maturity, stature and prominence to the area’.

More details about the development can be found at the council’s planning portal using the reference: AWDM/1450/21.

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