Campaigners ask government to ‘call in’ Royal Mail plan – Brighton and Hove News

Campaigners fighting the Royal Mail’s planning application to build a new depot in Patcham have asked for the application to be “called in” by the Secretary of State.

Brighton and Hove City Council’s Planning Committee voted to be “minded to grant” the application subject to agreements after three hours of deliberations on Wednesday (4 September).

Patcham resident Paul Mannix submitted the request to Angela Rayner, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.

In asking for the application to be called in, Mr Mannix had to put together a “statement of case”

As a result, the Planning Inspectorate is expected to review the application and all accompanying documents and plans before publishing a report.

Mr Mannix, who has dressed up as “Mr Poop” for a protest outside Hove Town Hall on Wednesday, has been campaigning to end the raw sewage floods that already pollute Patcham’s streets.

He is concerned that the problem risks becoming worse now that the Royal Mail has been granted planning permission to build a depot at Patcham Court Farm, in Vale Road.

He said: “I was shocked and appalled at the Planning Committee at Hove Town Hall.

“The chair gave much more time to the Royal Mail speakers when asked questions by local councillors and then refused to give locals more than 30 seconds to answer councillors’ questions.

“The chair ran roughshod over all the evidence that locals provided and overall discrepancies in the Royal Mail’s surveys.

“It is clear from the council’s behaviour that they are willing to risk the safety of Brighton’s tap water because they want Royal Mail’s money for the council-owned Patcham Court Farm.

“The council are selling off the family silver cheaply and the current two depots do not threaten the tap water safety city-wide.

“The Patcham Royal Mail depot, if built, threatens the tap water with contamination for 139,000 properties across the city both at the time of construction and in operation.”

There are four grounds to the request for a call in.

• Changes to the National Planning Policy Framework will require more housing in Brighton and Hove and the council should build social housing on the land rather than lease it to a private company.
• The application may have a significant long-term impact on economic growth and meeting housing needs across a wider area than a single local authority because Brighton and Hove has housed homeless people in Eastbourne and Newhaven.
• The application has national security concerns, with the new Labour government having just called in the sale of the Royal Mail to Czech businessman Daniel Kretinsky for possible links to Russia and the application site is very sensitive because it sits on the Patcham aquifer that provides most of Brighton and Hove’s tap water.
• The application raises significant architectural and urban design issues as the site of Patcham Court Farm is in an Area of Outstanding National Beauty and is designated by Brighton and Hove City Council as a green buffer zone for the Patcham Village residential heritage conservation area which contains a significant number of listed buildings and monuments.