MP and residents ‘disappointed’ by Royal Mail lease grant

The cabinet at Brighton and Hove City Council approved the leasehold grant of the site in Patcham Court Farm at a meeting on Wednesday afternoon.

The lease will be for a term of 250 years of the site to Royal Mail for the provision of a 4,145sqm delivery office.

Residents in Patcham have been fighting against the development for over a year, forming the  campaign group Patcham Against Royal Mail with hundreds supporting the cause. 

The entrance to the site in Patcham Farm Court (Image: Ramy Abou-Setta / The Argus) Rebecca Mintrim, a Patcham resident who was present at the cabinet meeting representing her community, said: “Brighton and Hove City Council’s decision to lease Patcham Court Farm to Royal Mail at a peppercorn rent is deeply disappointing, especially given the clear risks to Patcham’s people and heritage.

“The city will earn just £2.7 million over 250 years—equating to £10,800 a year—far below market value for the land and a fraction of the £8 million the council initially sought for a shorter lease with the corporation.

“Royal Mail’s executives and shareholders will be laughing all the way to the bank with this deal, because they will also be reaping tens of millions from selling their existing city-centre property originally paid for by the taxpayer.

“Shameful.”

More than 1,000 objections had been raised to the planning application since its submission in July 2022. The planning application was granted in September.

Resident Paul Mannix or Mr Poop as he was known during the campaign against the Royal Mail depot (Image: Ramy Abou-Setta / The Argus) Paul Mannix, or Mr Poop as he has become known as during his campaign against the depot, said: “It is extremely disappointing that Brighton and Hove City Council are deadset on approving and pushing through this application”

“It’s clear to us that they wanted it [Royal Mail depot] for several years despite more than a thousand objections and many representations made by concerned residents and councillors that the site was either a bad idea or that it could affect the water supply.

“So it’s really disappointing to see the council steamrolling this through.

“It’s become increasingly obvious to us that they were always going to grant the lease, they had worked on it for many years, and we could not have stopped it no matter what we did.

“We have tried very hard indeed, but we are not surprised and has shown us that we are fighting a losing battle and it’s disappointing. ”

The Green MP for Brighton Pavilion Sian Berry submitted objections to the plans (Image: Jonathan Brady / PA) The Green MP for Brighton Pavilion Sian Berry submitted objections to the plans for Patcham Court Farm, in Vale Avenue, both before and after her election on Thursday, July 4.

Ms Berry has been outspoken about the Royal Mail plans since their submission and in September said: “When even Southern Water don’t seem wholly confident about Royal Mail’s plans, saying they need more ‘conversations’ about mitigations, alarm bells should be ringing.”

Responding to the council’s grant last week, she said: “I know that many of my constituents in Patcham will be incredibly disappointed by the Cabinet’s decision to lease the land at Patcham Court Farm to Royal Mail.

“Residents passionately made the case that the council has stretched its own land classification for the site to shoehorn this development in, and they expressed serious concerns about being prevented from scrutinising new information submitted just weeks before the planning decision was made.

“The conditions imposed are meaningless unless they are adhered to, so it is vital that the council makes available the resources it needs to enforce all this. Royal Mail do not have the strongest record when it comes to maintaining their assets, so given the environmental sensitivity of the site there can be no compromise, and the council will need to be vigilant in its monitoring of the next steps.”

“It’s perhaps worth noting that this year marks the 100-year anniversary of the Brighton Corporation Water Act 1924, legislation introduced to give the council, acting on behalf of its residents, legal powers to purchase private land in order to protect the city’s water supply, including Patcham Court Farm. So to see the land now leased to a private multinational company operating under the Royal Mail banner a century on, when the local community believe so many questions about safeguards remain unanswered, is a concern for many in the Patcham area.”