PLANS to build a high-rise hotel on the old ice rink site in Queen Square have been withdrawn after more than 150 people objected. The planning committee had been due to consider the plans on 1st February.

The MCHA objected because of the impact on St Nick's and the churchyard and on Wykeham Terrace. All the main local groups also objected to the plans, including the Clifton Montpelier, Powis Community Alliance, St Nicholas Church PCC, St Nicholas Green Spaces Association and the Wykeham Terrace Residents' Association. Local councillors Lizzie Deane and Pete West also objected.

The developers wanted to build an upmarket six-storey hotel. The scheme had been designed by the Brighton office of architects Conran and Partners.

The six-storey building would have been roughly the same height as the roof of the multi-storey office block in Queen Square. The sheer scale of the building would have dominated the southern part of St Nicholas’s churchyard and the back of  Wykeham Terrace. Both the churchyard and Wykeham Terrace are listed buildings and together they mark the boundary of our conservation area.  

We told Conran and Partners in April that the building was too tall. The council’s planning guidance of March 2009 said that four storeys would probably be the maximum acceptable height on the site. But the developers seem to have ignored the critical comments they received. So now, it's back to the drawing board.

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