Construction Industry News Archive
Welcome to the news archive page. This is where you will find articles from January 2007. If you would like to view our current news, please click here.
- A rival for King Alfred
- Plans to transform heart of city
- Letter: Let our city become a modern one
- i360 tower 'mired in red tape'
- Bid to transform waterfront site
- Black Rock on ice again
A rival for King Alfred
The people of Brighton and Hove are being asked to back a rival scheme for the King Alfred leisure centre.
A group of local businessmen claim they have an alternative only a few weeks before a planning meeting decides whether Frank Gehry's audacious design can be built, Millionaire entrepreneur Mike Holland and his business partner John Regan believe their plan is better.
Last year the pair rescued the British Engineerium in Hove and Newlands School in Seaford after both were threatened with closure.
Architect Nick Lomax, who helped design Brighton's Jubilee Library, supports them and has promised to create a new design from scratch.
The plans offer a maximum 450 homes compared to 750 in Gehry's design. There would also be an Olympic-sized swimming pool and bowling facilities The proposal is supported by Conservative Brighton and Hove city councillors. Lib Dems have called it "interesting" but Labour and the Greens said it was too late to be coming up with new ideas with a planning meeting imminent.
Mr Holland said:
"We are saying, give us a chance to demonstrate there is a viable alternative. At the very least, for now, please don't rush ahead. We feel it is a grave folly. We don't want another white elephant in Brighton and Hove. We are not anti-Gehry. Had it been another location it might have been okay."
The men said they have been thinking about the idea for years and have stepped in now because they are unhappy with what is being proposed by the developer Karis.
If councillors indicated their proposal had a chance, they would draw up detailed plans.
Mr Regan said that in 2002 the scheme was estimated at £15.9 million, or £19 million with car parking, for a 9,000 to 10,000 sq metre sports centre. It averaged out at £2,000 per sq metre.
He said:
"We are now being told the facility is going to cost £46 million. That is a watered-down version of the brief. There is no indoor bowling. Why is it costing £46 million?"
Mr Regan believes his new plan could come in at £25 million for the sports centre, a similar cost to the £30 million K2 centre in Crawley.
He says the council administration is trying to push the scheme through before the election when Labour might lose seats.
Mr Lomax said he has "deep misgivings" about Karis's plans because the brief asked for too many homes.
He said people looking at it from the seafront will see nothing but a blank wall.
Josh Arghiros, managing director of Karis, dismissed the proposals.
He said:
"If we are going to build a world-class sports centre with the world's greatest architect and it will be a sports centre that will be the envy of the world, it isn't going to cost the same as one built in Crawley.
If they want a Crawley-esque sports centre, that isn't what we intend to do. We want an individual, inspiring, world class sports centre that will be the envy of the world, just like our city.
Frank Gehry is probably the world's greatest architect. We have spent £10 million getting the design right, making sure the ground conditions are right. They have no idea what it costs to build because we've spent four years investigating by using the premier consultants."
From The Argus, 7th January 2007
Plans to transform heart of city
Developers and councillors are drawing up multi-million pound plans to open up the heart of Brighton to the seafront.
Shoppers at Churchill Square would be treated to stunning views of the seafront under proposals to transform one of the most important commercial features of the city.
Councillors want to create an air of elegance to the triangle which houses the shopping centre, the Brighton Centre and the bulky Kingswest Building.
Shoppers are cut off from the seaside as the shopping centre backs onto the promenade and the centre, which houses many of the city's conferences and attracts scores of big-name bands for concerts.
But planners hope visitors could shop while still enjoying Brighton's best attraction - the seaside.
The scheme would cost hundreds of millions of pounds, eclipsing even Frank Gehry's proposed £290 million King Alfred sports and homes complex on Hove seafront, if it wins backing.
One plan under discussion is bulldozing the Brighton Centre to replace it with a modern conference building which would tie in with an expansion of Churchill Square to open it up to views of the sea.
The Kingswest building on the corner of West Street and Kings Road, home to the Odeon cinema and the Event II nightclub, would be demolished and space made for more shops, a new cinema and a top quality hotel.
Councillors are considering if they can incorporate homes into the development.
Supporters of the scheme hope it would bring more shoppers into Brighton and that the updated facilities would protect the city's reputation as a premier conference location amid increasingly fierce competition from cities such as Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool and Newcastle.
The long-term aim would be for Brighton, with its buzzing seafront and proximity to London and Gatwick Airport, to rival cities in the United States, France and Germany as a conference and exhibition destination.
Before the plans can become reality, Brighton and Hove City Council and Standard Life Investments, which owns Kingswest and Churchill Square, must secure millions of pounds of funding to help pay for the project.
Details of the scheme remain a closely-guarded secret because funding is not yet guaranteed.
But Brighton and Hove City Councillor Brian Fitch said more details would be released later this year.
He added:
"It will be a great opportunity for the city. The Brighton Centre is out of date and we have got to look to the future.
We want to make the whole area work. There has been so much criticism about Kingswest and this would be a chance to have something more elegant."
Councillors are optimistic about winning funding from the South East England Development Agency, which is believed to have been impressed by the strength and breadth of support for the project.
Churchill Square shopping centre was redeveloped from an open-air Sixties building into a fully-covered complex with 85 stores in 1998.
But senior councillors fear more needs to be done to reverse a feared slowdown in trade. It is hoped that a major redevelopment would trigger hundreds of millions of pounds of investment in the city.
Several major hotels are understood to be waiting for the transformation before spending millions of pounds in refurbishments - something which happened when the original Brighton Centre was built.
Councillors are keen for the scheme to be completed in time for the London Olympics in 2012.
From The Argus, 3rd January 2007
Letter: Let our city become a modern one
I was very much incensed by the report in The Argus of yet another delay to the building of the Brighton Eye proposed for the seafront (The Argus, December 15).
What is going on in this city of ours? It seems to me there is a group of people determined to scupper, by any means possible, the improvements to our town.
Improvements which would enhance it and bring in many visitors and much-needed cash, possibly helping to alleviate the rising cost of the Council Tax.
At the last count, there were six or more projects proposed, all of which have suffered delays to various degrees: the improvements to Brighton Marina, the skating rink complex at Black Rock, the Brighton Eye, the stadium at Falmer, the highrise building at the station site and lastly, the rebuilding of the West Pier, the sabotage of which nobody has been brought to account for.
So I ask again, what's going on?
Let's have some answers and, above all, some positive action instead of all these delays. I want my city to be a vibrant, modern place to be proud of, not a Victorian museum.
David Jacobs, Havelock Road, Brighton
From The Argus, 29th December 2006
i360 tower 'mired in red tape'
Fears have been raised that Government red tape could delay the opening of the Brighton Eye observation tower.
Work is due to begin on the futuristic 172m structure in spring but the West Pier Trust, which owns the site, is still waiting for the Government to approve final planning permission.
The Noble Organisation, which runs the Palace Pier, objected to a harbour revision order being granted on the grounds it would increase competition on the seafront and adversely affect the pier's profits.
The tower, designed by the architects of the London Eye and known as the i360, is predicted to attract 500,000 visitors a year, boost the city's economy by an estimated £10 million and create more than 100 jobs.
Geoff Lockwood, chief executive of the West Pier Trust, said:
"We are annoyed that we are still waiting for the Government to determine this decision which should have been made by now following the public inquiry in February.
We expected a decision in September, then November and now January. If the delay goes on for longer that another six weeks it could put back the date work starts on the project.
We are sure the decision has not been delayed because of problems with our case, which is sound. It is just a case of Government bureaucracy.
Noble's fears are unfounded. The council and independent consultants agreed that the i360 would not take any of their share of the leisure pound and, if anything, would attract more people to the city and the seafront."
Councillors, conservation groups and tourist chiefs have all backed the i360, Britain's highest observation tower, which would transport visitors up to 139m in an enclosed pod, providing panoramic views.
The pod, with a capacity of 125 people, would be more than nine times the size of a London Eye capsule.
Rachel Clark, the trust's general manager, said:
"We have made frequent inquires to the Government to check on the progress and we are just hoping for the best. We have been assured that this delay is not out of the ordinary so we still await the decision."
The Department for Transport told The Argus a decision will not be made until "early next year".
From The Argus, 15th December 2006
Bid to transform waterfront site
A seaside town could be transformed by a multimillion pound redevelopment.
The proposals for the former Parcelforce site on Shoreham seafront include 84 new flats, an 80-room boutique hotel and a health club.
A new waterfront piazza would be built and there would be underground parking, a riverside walk and improvements to the slipways leading to the sea.
Urban Life Developments, the firm behind the proposals, want to know what residents think of the designs before submitting them to Adur District Council in the Spring.
If they get the green light, work would start in July and would be completed within two years.
Managing director Philip Foster said both he and architect Howard Carter had a strong connection with the area.
Mr Foster surfs off Shoreham Beach and socialises in the town, while Mr Carter has just bought a house on the Old Fort Road after falling in love with the area while working on the scheme.
Mr Foster said:
"It is a very personal thing for me and I was determined to deliver a scheme that feels right for the area."
He has worked with the Adur Regeneration Initiative to ensure the proposals fit in with the aims of the Shoreham Renaissance Masterplan, which was set out by the district and county councils and others with an interest in the area.
He said the layout of the block of flats was partly inspired by the town's 19th Century fort, which has "maximum viewing points at the same time as maximum privacy".
It is designed so that none of the flats look on to another.
Clive Voice, who manages the boatyard next to the site, said he thought it would improve the area.
"At the moment it's very industrial and it's hard to see where the town actually starts. Even though it is quite a modern building, I think even those people who want to keep Shoreham as an old, quaint town will like it."
Brian Pickering of environmental consultancy SM341, which is based in the town, said:
"I really like it because they've allowed views of the river and on the other side are views of the Downs. It's not overbearing from the roadside and although it will appear quite high from the river it is set back. It will attract people to Shoreham."
From The Argus, 15th December 2006
Black Rock on ice again
The opening of Brighton's £70 million Olympic ice rink has been delayed for a third time.
The venue, originally planned to open at the derelict seafront Black Rock site, has been beset by problems brought on by a raft of proposed developments at the nearby marina.
Project leaders have missed another self-imposed deadline and admitted there is no chance of the arena opening before 2009.
The litany of broken promises has included: A pledge in September 2003 that the arena would be built in 2007; David Pople, managing director of Brighton Arena Ltd, announcing in August this year he expected a planning application to be submitted in October; Brighton and Hove City Council confirming in October a planning application was expected in November and saying work could start next year.
Mr Pople has now admitted the planning application would be submitted in January at the earliest and the centre would not open until autumn 2009.
He said:
"We had done 90 per cent of all of the work - which we are having to revise to take into account the cumulative impact with the other schemes at the marina."
Those schemes include the Western end project, involving the construction of a new Asda and McDonalds, the creation a bridge and pathway from the cliff top down into the marina and 900 new apartments.
Other projects in the area include a 420ft tower as the centrepiece of a £235 million development which would include ten other buildings and a total of 853 homes.
Mr Pople said:
"We have just got to take into account other developments, as any other major application would. We are working very hard and hope to deliver the planning application as soon as possible - many of the team will be working over Christmas."
The Brighton International Arena will include two ice rinks, a 11,000-seat concert hall, a 100-seat cinema, flats, a museum, recording and dance studios, bars, shops and restaurants.
Business leaders say the plans would be a major boost to the Sussex economy but concern has been raised about the extra traffic. Two million visitors are expected to visit the venue each year and it is will create 126 permanent jobs and 250 part-time positions.
Councillor Simon Burgess, leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, said:
"It has been a long wait but the developers have worked so hard in getting it all in place. If they can shorten the timescale, the city wouldn't have to wait so long for a great ice rink."
Patricia Ginman, of Keep Sussex Skating, has campaigned for years to get a new ice rink in Brighton.
She said:
"It will be a major disappointment for all the skaters who want this so much"
The Brighton Centre is hosting two weeks of ice-skating over Christmas, and is the only other venue to offer any skating.
But it too is set to be redeveloped and although no completion date has been given, councillors hope a new facility will be in place by the London 2012 Olympics.
Argus columnist Adam Trimingham, who has followed the Black Rock development from its inception, said big city projects had a history of being delayed. He said.
"There have always been plans to replace the ice rink since the last one closed in 1965."
From The Argus, 14th December 2006
