Permission for almost 200 homes on city’s fringe

Permission has been granted for almost 200 homes on sites on the fringe of Brighton & Hove.

A recent planning committee of Brighton & Hove City Council granted outline planning permission for up to 125 dwellings on land off Overdown Rise and Mile Oak Road, Portslade. It includes associated access, landscaping and formal open space. As an outline application, details still need to be approved by the council at a later date.

Buildings are intended to be two storeys in height with a mix of housing ranging from one-bed flats up to four- bed semi and detached houses. Forty per cent of homes would be affordable housing aimed at local people in housing need.

A further 60 family homes have been approved on land at Coombe Farm, Westfield Avenue North, Saltdean. This too is an outline application with further details still to be approved by the council. Again forty per cent of properties would be affordable homes – a mixture of rented and shared ownership,

Under the government-approved City Plan, a blueprint for Brighton & Hove’s development, the city is required to provide a minimum of 13,200 homes by 2030.  Both sites are identified in the plan as having potential for housing.

Substitute planning committee chair Cllr Clare Moonan welcomed the 40 per cent affordable housing, adding: “We have listened carefully to arguments on both sides and felt on balance the benefits outweighed perceived disadvantages. We desperately need more homes to accommodate future generations. Most of these will be on brownfield sites within the city. Where we allow building on greenfield sites like this we need to ensure that the details enable good community life and respect the environment.”

How the housing development off Overdown Rise could look