Steep decline in estate agents' boards
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THREE estate agents have been fined £1,000 each for putting up boards in defiance of the council's ban on estate agents' boards. The council banned all new “for sale”, “sold” and “to let” boards on residential properties on 20th September 2010.
Mishon Welte and Priors were both fined at Brighton magistrates court on 24th March. Cubitt and West were fined £1,000 for another rogue board in May.
The number of boards in the Montpelier and Clifton Hill conservation area has plummeted since Brighton and Hove City Council banned “for sale” boards last year.
The Montpelier and Clifton Hill Association carried out the first ever comprehensive survey of boards in the conservation area to gauge the effect of the ban. Boards that were erected before 20th September 2010 can stay until the property is sold or let. The ban covers almost all the city’s central conservation areas .
The MCHA survey in March found 27 boards in the conservation area. The association established how many boards there were before the ban by carrying out a virtual survey of the same roads on Google Streetview. The Streetview pictures, which date from spring 2009, show that there more than 60 boards in the area before the ban. By end end of July only half a dozen boards were left in the conservation area.
The MCHA is sharing the results of its survey with the council and the council will be able to draw on the evidence from the MCHA survey to take action against agents erecting these rogue boards.
Some agents still seem hazy about the regulations. A number of new boards have been erected in the conservation area, but all of these have now been removed. The boards that remain are now all advertising hard-to sell properties. Do estate agents really want to advertise this fact?
Mitre House
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In 2007 more than 170 people objected to plans to raise the roof of Mitre House, the rundown building on Western Road that occupies the block between Hampton Place and Spring Street. Mitre House is already the tallest building on Western Road. The extra two blocks on both the north block and the south block would have spoiled many views of the sea from the Montpelier and Clifton Hill Conservation Area, including the classic one down Victoria Street. It would also have spoiled views up the hill from the sea front as well as casting an enormous 70-metre wide shadow that in winter would have stretched from Western Road to Upper North Street. The playground of Saint Mary Magdalen’s School stood to lose its winter sun. These plans were turned down by the council in 2007.
New plans to turn the north block of Mitre House into a hotel were approved by the planning committee on 3rd November. For more details see our planning page.
