Four blocks of flats on Shoreham's Frost Cars site approved

The application to demolish 69-75 Brighton Road – currently home to Frosts Cars – and build 176 one and two-bedroom flats was given the nod by the planning committee on Monday (March 20).

The plans included 600sqm of commercial space on the ground floor while 53 of the flats will be classed as affordable.

Applicant Shoreham Brighton Road Limited recently launched an appeal after a similar application for 183 flats was refused by the committee.

A number of changes were made to the development in the latest application, including reducing the height of the three tallest buildings by one storey, keeping the riverside parts of the blocks to no more than five storeys, and increasing the height of one of the roadside blocks.

The council received 28 letters objecting to the plans, one in support, and one from the Shoreham Beach Residents Association, which included a number of suggestions/objections.

Parking was one of the main issues, with the Association describing the 79 spaces – eight of which would be set aside for Car Club use – as ‘inadequate’ predicting that people would park in the streets elsewhere.

Most of the committee members agreed the revised scheme was ‘a vast improvement’ on the previous application.

But questions were asked regarding who would move into the commercial space given that similar space in other developments was standing empty.

While the application was approved, not everyone agreed it was a good idea.

Julian Shinn (Green, St Nicolas) said the development was still ‘too dense’, with the changes doing little more than ‘shaving elements off the top’.

And Jeremy Gardner (Lab, St Mary’s) shared the concerns of the Shoreham Beach Residents Association about parking spilling over into nearby streets.

But Andy McGregor (Con, Widewater) felt the applicant had addressed the reasons for refusing the first scheme, particularly the development’s height and massing.

Referring to the hundreds of families on the housing waiting list, he added: “We are not hitting our housing targets – this is not a planning consideration whether we are hitting them or not – but we shouldn’t be turning down developments that are going to be helping solve our housing need.”