London Road student flats approved

Clean air campaigner Adrian Hill spoke out about the scheme to demolish the former Marks and Spencer store and replace it with a five-storey block, citing high levels of air pollution.

Mr Hill, a member of Clean Air for Brighton and Hove, told councillors yesterday (Wednesday February 10) that the proposed block would make matters worse.

But Brighton and Hove City Council’s Planning Committee backed the proposal by McLaren Property to build more student housing on the plot next to the Aldi supermarket.

Councillors were told that pollution there was higher than the legal limits because of the number of buses stopping along London Road.

Mr Hill told a virtual meeting of the Planning Committee that in 2019 a diffusion tube measuring pollution levels outside the building found that it was the second-worst in Brighton and Hove for nitrogen dioxide – after North Street – and the sixth-worst in the south east.

He said: “Vulnerable groups use the bus stops, such as primary school children and patients at the medical centres.

“The area is in social deprivation because of the air quality and this will make it worse.

“Brighton’s second-most polluted spot, 54 per cent over legal limits … it is no place to live and no place to worsen pollution.”

The council’s air quality manager Sam Rouse said that he was concerned about a proposed communal gas-fired boiler for water heating and a back-up diesel generator, preferring combustion-free energy sources.

But he raised no objections based on the traffic levels outside the building.

McLaren’s air quality expert Frances Marshall completed an air quality assessment for the scheme, looking at the effects of traffic and the energy plant.

She said that, after using recognised methods recommended by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the scheme would have no impact on pollution.

One neighbour, Judi Lynn, of nearby Providence Place, spoke in support of the plan to build the student flats above a new row of shops.

She raised concerns about drugs, litter and graffiti – and the proposed student flats, with its security and glass doors, would be an improvement.

Mrs Lynn said: “This development I see as an extremely important part of this. I do believe there is a need for student housing.

“I would like to see them out of HMOs (houses in multiple occupation) and in proper places that are suitable for them.”

She also praised the design for echoing the brickwork of nearby St Bartholomew’s Church.

Conservative councillor Joe Miller said: “Providence Place is ugly and horrible to walk past, right in front of Brighton’s grade I listed church.

“Anything there would improve it and this is a significant improvement on the Providence Place side, as we have heard, quite passionately from the resident.”

Labour councillor Nick Childs said that London Road used to be an attractive shopping area and could be again, adding: “What that requires is greater footfall, a greater number of people with spending power in the area.

“I have got some concerns about a monolithic student block. I don’t like them that much. But the retail space is being preserved.”

He called for quicker action to deal with air pollution problems.

Independent councillor Bridget Fishleigh was the only member of the committee to vote against the plans.

She said: “We heard from the council air quality expert that he does not know if nitrogen dioxide levels will be down to the legal level by the time this building is occupied.

“I just can’t vote for other people’s children to be poisoned while they’re living and sleeping.”

Green councillor Sue Shanks, who represents St Peter’s and North Laine ward, which includes the site, abstained from the vote, describing herself as “very torn”.

The area needed improving, she said, but retail was failing and students were studying from home.

Councillor Shanks said: “I think it will change. In most European cities people don’t travel all the way to Edinburgh to go to university. They find something local.

“We have two local universities where people can learn. That’s my concern. By voting for something like this, we are saying this is how things are. But things are changing rapidly.”

McLaren Property development director David Atherton said after the meeting: “This is a very pleasing result and one that will help deliver positive change to this part of the city.

“I would like to thank all those who have contributed to the proposals, particularly those in the local community who have engaged with us during the design stages.

“This new development will remove a dilapidated building that has sadly been attracting anti-social behaviour and which local residents want to see redeveloped.”

The current tenants of 5-8 London Road are Peacocks, Iceland and Poundland, with M&S having vacated the premises in 1986.