There are three types of lie: lies, damned lies and statistics Benjamin Disraeli (attrib)
And there is a fourth type of lie: a picture. 'The camera never lies' is itself a lie. Indeed, the camera can be made to lie so convincingly that it can lay fair claim to being the ultimate lying machine.
Ever since Explore Living set up their 'information centre' in the Marina, they bombarded visitors with misleading images in an effort to sell the story that their plans were unobtrusive and benign. Other misleading images that were used in support of their planning application can be seen by going to the planning register and searching for BH2007/03454
From the start, it has been obvious to those who know Brighton that the pictures were a dramatic understatement of the true visual impact of what would be, by any standards, immense buildings crammed together into a small area of reclaimed sea near Kemptown. We now know how the illusion was created.
The Landscape Institute's guidelines for visual impact assessment require images to be produced using the equivalent of a 35mm camera with a 50mm lens, but the Marina developers have systematically ignored this advice and used the equivalent of a 27mm lens. In the image below (claimed by the developers to be a simulation of the view from the roof of Marine Gate) the Marina appears to be a vast expanse, with the harbour wall and 40-storey tower a long way away. Readers who know the view from Marine Gate will know just how misleading this is. The wide angle stretches perspective and makes every point in the image look nearly twice as far away as it really is. So this image is more like what the scheme would look like from Whitehawk Road than from Marine Gate.
Wide-angle images, which contravene the Landscape Institute's guidelines, fill page after page of the 'visual impact assessment' in Explore Living's planning application supporting documents. They make monstrous new skyscrapers seem distant and unobtrusive, and make a cramped shadowy housing estate look spacious and bright. Professional photographer Michael Perris says 'The use of a wide angle lens was highly inappropriate and renders useless the images for the intended purpose of providing an accurate illustration of the visual impact of the development. For an apparently experienced photographer of architecture to not know this is inconceivable'
Not only are the images used throughout the developer's visual impact assessment utterly misleading, but their attempt at justifying the destruction of and sea and cliff views is written in pure gobbledygook, and inane gobbledygook at that. For example, in image C40 (see below) where a priceless coastal view has been totally obliterated they say, "The development celebrates and landmarks the important Marina district of the city, changing the cliff views with their poor foreground into a qualitative extension of the city's townscape"
cliff views from seafront near Lewes Crescent (detail of current view courtesy Michael Perris)
Truth is that the beautiful cliff view in this picture would be obliterated by a grotesque wall of buildings leading to a 28-storey towering carbuncle.
the above view after 'improvement' by the developers (detail from planning application)
At present your eye can roam across the magnificent Regency terraces of Lewes Crescent, then as you turn to look along the coastal road you see the end of the Ovingdean valley, the Rottingdean windmill, and a serrated backdrop of green hills edged with white chalk cliffs. This is the final flourish of the South Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty as it tumbles into the sea to form the cliffs and bays of Ovingdean, Rottingdean, Telscombe, Peacehaven Heights and the Harbour Heights of Newhaven, with Seaford Head visible beyond. All would be obliterated by this obscene development. Shamelessly, the barbarians who wrote the planning application say they would regard this as a 'substantial, beneficial change'.
C40 claimed visual impact from a point near Lewes Crescent - from planning application
adapted from part of image C40 - true visual impact from same position
current view from same position (photo courtesy Michael Perris)
Savebrighton member Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe has raised questions in the Lords, asking the Government to bring forward legislation that would prevent developers using misleading images in planning applications.
To see the supporting documents for yourself go to the planning register and search for BH2007/03454
