First some good news. After a fantastic response from savebrighton members, with thousands of emails sent to the council, two horrible building proposals have been withdrawn - see withdrawn applications - good evidence of the power of protest. Enormous gratitude is due to all who submitted objections - many taking advantage of the 'easy objection' links provided on this website.
The bad news is that the vandals who propose to 'improve' Brighton by filling the Marina with massive tower-blocks are back. With contempt for the views of thousands of residents and their councillors, Explore Living hope to overturn the planning committee's refusal of their nightmare planning application.
They would have done well to reflect on what we told them: it is not development we oppose, just bad development; we will not allow the Brighton seafront to be treated as though it were Dubai or Croydon; and their disgraceful efforts to deceive us about the impact of their proposals have failed. Savebrighton member Lord Brooke is pressing the government to introduce controls to stop developers using misleading images in planning applications, but meanwhile we need to remain vigilant. We can expect the developers to wheel out more misleading claims and images in support of their appeal, and we must be ready for them.
At a local level we are asking the council to start delivering on its promise to work in cooperation with residents to develop a new masterplan for the genuine improvement of Brighton and its Marina. So far our councillors have said the right things but there has been no real action. Last year, the council's planning officers gave full support to the developers' plans to turn the Marina into a massive tower-block housing estate, ignoring or underplaying the objections raised by residents and their elected representatives. They seemed to be in a state of civil war with our councillors. It was undemocratic and it is the sort of thing that has got to stop.
Savebrighton will be working closely with residents' associations and councillors to do all we can to prevent the developers from ruining the Marina and destroying our quality of life. They have already invested over £9m in their application and can be expected to try to use their financial muscle to crush the opposition. Last year they claimed their tower blocks were objects of beauty, and preferable to the sea and cliff views they would block. This year we can expect more nonsense from them. But if we work together with the same commitment and energy as last year, it will be honesty, genuine concern for the future of our city and democracy that win the day. Not developers' greed.
Brian Simpson 17 April 2009
website first produced 23 October 2007 last modified 17 April 2009
