First details of work to start £540million Brighton project due to be revealed

The works, by Brighton Marina, will form the first phase of a £540 million scheme that was first announced in 2014.

The scheme involves knocking down the Brighton Centre, extending Churchill Square to the seafront and building a new 10,000-seat arena and conference centre at Black Rock.

After years of complex negotiations with the owners of Churchill Square, Aberdeen Standard Investments, the first planning application is due to be submitted at the end of October.

A report to a Brighton and Hove City Council committee said: “This will include a sustainable transport link in and out of the Marina that will run under the ramp access and ‘de-risking’ and decontamination works for the Black Rock site.

“An extension of the sea wall to facilitate this is also included.

“Visioning work for the eastern seafront, working with LUC as landscape architects, has also started and this will form part of the planning application.”

The report, to the council’s new Tourism, Equalities, Communities and Culture (TECC) Committee, said that the pre-planning process was complete for the enabling works.

And the application is due to be submitted by the end of next month, with the aim of planning permission being decided in January.

The project faces time pressure because work on site needs to start by next March to meet the terms of the funding agreement with the Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership.

If planning permission is granted, work should start next March and be completed 12 months later.

Plans for the Brighton Centre and the new Black Rock conference centre will follow, with the work at the Marina end due to be carried out first.

The final phase – extending Churchill Square to the seafront – will result in a new seafront-facing “retail and leisure” centre.

Details of the Waterfront scheme form part of a major projects update to the TECC Committee at Hove Town Hall on Thursday (26 September). The meeting is scheduled to start at 4pm and should be open to the public.