Sensitive redevelopment reaches new peak
Planning permission has been granted for a £19 million scheme on a Hove hilltop site. The new development, in the area known locally as Snakey Hill, will deliver 69 apartments on the edge of the South Downs National Park. Traffic safety concerns were dealt with to the satisfaction of the planning authority, paving the way for the scheme to gain approval.
Developer Mike Holland of Threadneedle Estates has worked with Motion on the project. “We were very pleased with the outcome. Motion just got on with the job. It was apparent from the beginning that the company’s knowledge and experience would help us to win the argument. It was advice worth listening to.”
Motion successfully addressed concerns about future traffic volumes and the proposed new junction layout, close to a roundabout by the A27 trunk road. Managing Director Phil Bell explains, “Paragraph 32 of the National Planning Policy Framework states that development should only be prevented or refused on transport grounds where the residual cumulative impacts of development are severe.”
The land at Court Farm House is adjacent to King George VI Avenue, approximately five kilometres to the north of Brighton city centre. The road forms an eastern boundary for the site and connects it to the centre of Hove, and Brighton via the A27 and A210.
Vehicular and pedestrian access enhanced
Vehicular access to the new development will be provided by an upgraded priority-controlled junction on King George VI Avenue, and a right-hand turn lane for southbound drivers from the Dyke Road roundabout. The site is accessible by sustainable modes of transport. Pedestrian links will be enhanced with a footway to the north of the avenue and a pedestrian refuge island. The island will provide a safer pedestrian crossing for Court Farm residents and improve links from the development to existing pathways and pedestrian routes towards the local road network and bus services.
Mike Holland continues, “The Motion team was able to satisfy the traffic and transport questions in every respect. The sensitive redevelopment of the area, and the much-needed new housing it will offer, will help to transform this significant site on the edge of the South Downs National Park.”
More sustainable travel choices
The Brighton and Hove Local Plan ‘saved policies’ recommended that development proposals should provide for the demand they create, and that the demand shall be met by a range of non-car modes. A travel plan will help bring about a reduction in single occupancy, private car usage in favour of more sustainable travel choices by residents and visitors.
The land is identified for a mixed-used development in the draft City Plan, to include housing, office space and a new school. The transport strategy in the draft policy aims to enhance road safety on King George VI Avenue and improve sustainable transport links to the area.
Phil Bell adds, “Planning permission was granted at appeal in January 2014 for a 58-bedroom care home and five detached houses. In this respect, the principle of development at the site had therefore already been established.”
This article first appeared in the Summer 2017 issue of Insight.
Image copyright: Conran and Partners
