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Some people living near a site where a Royal Mail depot could replace derelict farm buildings felt that the planning system was biased against them, according to a leading councillor.
Conservative leader Alistair McNair made the claim at a Brighton and Hove City Council meeting at Hove Town Hall yesterday (Thursday 24 October).
Councillor McNair asked why the Royal Mail planning application for Patcham Court Farm, in Vale Road, was not discussed at a special Planning Committee meeting as had happened with some other major schemes.
The Conservative councillor, who represents Patcham and Hollingbury, which includes Patcham Court Farm, contrasted the approach with how the committee dealt with the Brighton gasworks planning application in the Labour-held Whitehawk and Marina ward.
The Patcham Court Farm scheme was one of several applications decided by the committee last month but, in May, it held an extra meeting to discuss the gasworks scheme. It was the only item on the agenda for that meeting.
In the past, this has happened for a small number of big schemes such as the £485 million modernisation of the Royal Sussex County Hospital, which was approved at a standalone meeting in 2012.
Labour councillor Liz Loughran, who chairs the Planning Committee, said: “Councillor McNair, I assure you there was no bias coming from the committee.
“I am aware it was a highly emotive application in terms of the representations made by various people. They were fully addressed in the committee determination.
“You are the first person to raise an issue with that determination since it was made.”
A Patcham resident, Paul Mannix, who led a deputation to the Planning Committee, wrote to the Secretary of State, Angela Rayner, after the meeting.
Mr Mannix urged her to “call in” the application and take over responsibility for deciding whether the scheme should go ahead. His request was turned down.
Councillor McNair said that there was little time to fully discuss the Patcham Court Farm scheme because it was “squeezed between” other items on the committee’s agenda on Wednesday 4 September.
He said: “Residents against the Patcham Court Farm development strongly felt the planning system was biased against them. How can we avoid residents feeling the planning system is biased against them?”
Councillor Loughran said that the committee was given enough time to decide both applications – for Patcham Court Farm and the gasworks site.
The committee spent three hours listening to presentations and representations for and against the Patcham Court Farm proposals, sitting through a question-and-answer session and discussing the scheme before approving the plans.
The committee sat for five and a half hours before turning down plans for almost 500 homes on the old gasworks site near Brighton Marina.
A report by planning officials supported the £280 million scheme = and this month the applicant, St William, owned by the Berkeley Group, has lodged an appeal.
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