Construction Industry News Archive
Welcome to the news archive page. This is where you will find articles from September 2006. If you would like to view our current news, please click here.
- Ambitious plans for marina
- Building land famine threat to countryside
- £20m airport hotel plans for Gatwick
- Vital support for i360 proposals
- Design for the future
- Green vision would create jobs and 'new life' in city centre
Ambitious plans for marina
Developers have unveiled ambitious plans for more than 1,500 apartments in a marina village.
The blueprint for the new-look Brighton Marina includes 600 affordable apartments for key workers.
Jim Dennis, project leader for Explore Living, the company behind the plan, said: "We have the opportunity to create a district centre community in Brighton Marina, which includes the full range of properties that such a community needs, including high-end, mid-range and affordable homes.
"On a brownfield site this development can provide a large contribution towards the new housing the city needs while creating the regeneration of an area that is untidy and badly designed.
"This housing will be accompanied by a high amount of improved public space and residential recreational space as well as well-planned ground level unit space for local shops and services."
The apartments will be a mixture of one, two and three-bedroom flats suitable for single people, couples and young families.
Some will be specifically designed for families with a disabled member.
The apartments will appear green from the top of the cliff looking over the marina.
Mr Dennis said he was aware of people's concerns about tall buildings at the marina.
He said: "The recent decision to approve the Brunswick scheme now establishes a new and fixed dimension to the context for the marina, a position that we believe our proposals should respect and complement.
"As such we have introduced a number of carefully positioned taller buildings that not only animate the new areas of public space we are seeking to create but we believe make sense of the graduation of height between the two schemes.
"We are acutely aware of how important and sensitive the issue of tall buildings is."
The proposed development includes a public park at the base of the cliff, a pedestrian bridge link from the cliff top to the development, a new Asda supermarket and reorganisation of the site, including removing the current roundabout.
There would be a pond near the base of the cliff and a number of piazzas to encourage the cafe culture the scheme hopes to create.
Members of the development team will be on hand at the office to answer any questions.
Explore Living hopes to submit a detailed planning application by the end of the year.
From The Argus, 7th September 2006
Building land famine threat to countryside
A massive shortage of brownfield sites to build new homes in Sussex has been revealed.
The Government has set a target of up to 96,000 new homes to be built in the county over the next 20 years.
But new figures show there is room for only 22,000 on existing brownfield sites or those expected to become available in the next few years.
They have led to renewed fears that huge swathes of Sussex countryside will have to be concreted over by developers to meet the targets.
The Government has identified 486 hectares of previously developed brownfield land which can be re-used.
If 39 houses are built on each hectare, the average for the South-East, that would yield 19,000 homes.
While more brownfield land is expected to become available, that is still 77,000 short of the South East England Regional Assembly's (Seera) recommendation for new homes in Sussex. Politicians and countryside watchdogs are asking where the rest will go if more brownfield land cannot be found.
Nigel Waterson, MP for Eastbourne, said: "There is hardly any land left for development.
"The numbers the Government wants to impose will almost always involve major development on greenfield sites.
"They seem intent on concreting over some of the most beautiful countryside in England."
The latest brownfield figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) give the most detailed picture yet of the challenges facing planners.
They will also give further ammunition to opponents of Seera's provisional housebuilding targets, due to be scrutinised by a panel of inspectors later this year.
Martin Small, planning manager for Sussex Downs Joint Committee, said: "We have continually raised concerns that there will not be enough brownfield land to build all these homes.
"Inevitably it follows that there will have to be building on greenfield sites.
"If brownfield sites are taken up with new homes then that will have a knock-on effect.
"It will push business and industry to the edge of towns and on to the edge of the South Downs area of outstanding natural beauty.
"The proposals for Brighton and Hove's waste water treatment plant at Peacehaven and Albion's stadium at Falmer are examples of that."
Currently 75 per cent of all new developments in England are being built on previously developed sites.
The Government and Seera remain confident more brownfield sites will become available every year. But the DCLG figures suggest pressure to build on undeveloped greenfield land is almost certain to increase over the next two decades.
Protesters are currently fighting to save ancient woodland at Titnore Woods, Durrington, Worthing. There are plans to bulldoze 210 trees to create an access road serving 875 new homes and a Tesco superstore to be built nearby.
Peter Bottomley, MP for West Worthing, said: "The Government seems intent on turning people's back gardens into brownfield sites and putting blocks of flats in them.
"If they stopped doing that in Sussex and instead used brownfield land in the constituencies of northern Labour MPs there would be more than enough to go around."
Planning Minister Baroness Kay Andrews has said developers should build on brownfield land first.
But she admitted: "In some areas it may be necessary to bring forward other sites if we are to meet local demand."
From The Argus, 4th September 2006
£20m airport hotel plans for Gatwick
A £20 million hotel is planned for Gatwick.
Kew Green Hotels is to seek planning permission for a 220-bedroom hotel near the airport's South Terminal.
If Crawley Borough Council allows the application, construction will start next spring and the hotel should be ready to open by the summer of 2008.
The hotel would be operated by Courtyard Marriott, part of Kew Green Hotels.
From The Argus, 24th August 2006
Vital support for i360 proposals
Plans for a landmark 600ft seafront observation platform have won vital backing from a powerful Government conservation agency.
English Heritage has come out in support of the proposed £20 million i360 tower at the land end of the derelict West Pier in Brighton.
The planning application for the tower will be heard in October and would have stood little chance of success without approval from English Heritage.
The group's reluctance to support Frank Gehry's King Alfred redevelopment scheme along the seafront in Hove has been a serious setback, leading to the planning application being redrafted.
Geoff Lockwood, of the West Pier Trust, which is behind the i360 application, said: "This is certainly a massive and necessary hurdle.
"Without English Heritage support there would have been problems getting this through planning. It's far from a fait accompli but the planning committee has to take note of English Heritage as a statutory consultee.
"They were obviously happy with the scope and scale of the proposals."
In a letter to Brighton and Hove City Council, English Heritage inspector of historic buildings Richard Morrice said: "English Heritage welcomes a project which would provide an outstanding feature on the seafront and a worthy companion to any successor to the West Pier, whether rebuilt or replaced.
"It would achieve an outcome not unlike the original promenade pier by allowing viewing of the whole of Brighton seafront not from seaward but from above.
"Although English Heritage looks with considerable regret on the recent history of the West Pier, we consider the current proposal would prove a fine addition to the seafront. We therefore welcome this application and strongly support the granting of planning permission."
English Heritage has a long history with the West Pier site. Most recently it has been consulting with the trust on the best way to dismantle and remove the wrecked remains.
In 2004 it was heavily criticised for withdrawing backing for a scheme to redevelop the pier, which subsequently collapsed.
Dr Lockwood said he had been overwhelmed with the level of support the i360 had attracted.
It has been devised by architects David Marks and Julia Barfield, who designed the London Eye.
Dr Lockwood said: "It has been remarkable. Of course there are some concerns but I have not encountered any significant opposition.
"It has clearly caught the public imagination. The most common reaction has been stunned admiration."
The plan was featured on Channel 4's Richard and Judy show earlier this week and was warmly praised by the presenters. It is hoped revenue from the attraction, expected to carry more than 500,000 visitors a year, will be used to tidy up the derelict 140-year-old pier.
Public consultation for the planning application finished last week.
Brighton and Hove City Council received 66 letters of objection and 78 letters of support.
A council spokeswoman said: "The recommendation as to whether the scheme should be granted or refused will be primarily based on the extent to which the planning application accords with Brighton and Hove's development plan policies.
"It's not a referendum based on how many letters we have in."
The application seeks permission for the partial demolition of the Grade Ilisted pier structure, construction of the spire, a heritage centre, shops at lower promenade level and a coach park.
From The Argus, 24th August 2006
Design for the future
Businesses and community groups are being asked how far a city should insist on sustainable building design.
Brighton and Hove City Council is inviting people to contribute to its new planning document, which will provide guidelines on what sustainable features would be required for a building to win planning permission.
It will specify efficiency requirements for buildings in areas such as energy, water and waste. The document is expected to be adopted as council policy in 2008.
From The Argus, 23rd August 2006
Green vision would create jobs and 'new life' in city centre
An eco-development would add £19 million a year to Brighton's economy, according to a new report.
Brighton and Hove City Council claims the £100 million complex at the Circus Street fruit and vegetable market would create 620 jobs and "bring new life to an unattractive backwater".
The run-down site is being developed with the University of Brighton, which would have a new library. There would be 10,000sqm office space, 2,000sqm commercial space, 180 homes and 3,000sqm for the "creative industries".
The homes would be among the first in the city to have an "excellent" eco-rating.
Seventy would be "affordable" for people on the council's waiting list.
There would be 93 parking spaces, with residents encouraged to sign up to a car club and take public transport.
The 1.8-acre site would be carbon neutral and energy efficient, with a community trust-owned wind turbine elsewhere in Brighton and Hove to counter its impact.
There would be a public events square, studios for South-East Dance, shops and workspace for design graduates from the university.
Brighton and Hove City Council has just approved the first stage of a process which could enable work to begin next year. A board headed by council leader Simon Burgess is negotiating with developer the Cathedral Group. Residents, traders and community groups will be consulted.
The board will consider the final design in November, before a planning application is submitted in December.
Architect firm John McAslan, which restored the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill, is drawing up the design.
If approval is granted, building work could start in December 2007 with the library ready for autumn 2009 and the whole scheme completed by January 2010.
Council leader Simon Burgess said: "It's a great plan that will show you can bring new life to an unattractive backwater in an entirely sustainable way.
"I'm really looking forward to seeing this scheme complete with the homes, jobs and facilities it will bring the city and for the nearby residents who deserve better surroundings."
Developers would employ a community worker to ensure the plan brings improvements to the nearby Tarner estate.
Selma Montford, honorary secretary of the Brighton Society, voiced concerns that the plans included some eight-storey towers and one 12 storeys high.
She said: "It would tower above the houses in Grand Parade, particularly from the other side of the valley.
"That is not acceptable. Anything over six stories is a tall building."
In the short term the tenants - the Wood Recycling Project, Body Positive, an HIV and Aids charity, a pine reclamation company and an NCP car park - will be allowed to remain.
The Wood Recycling Project might find a home in the permanent site.
The market, set up in the Thirties, housed the city's fruit and veg wholesale business until it moved to Hollingbury, Brighton, last year.
The unoccupied market hall might in the short term be used as a creative market and artists' exhibition space.
There could be room for a five-a-side pitch or a skateboarding venue to discourage people from skateboarding on the roof.
From The Argus, 16th August 2006
