The Montpelier and Clifton Hill Association

Wykeham Terrace

The council narrowly approved plans to build a high-rise hotel on the old ice rink site in Queen Square after a confusing planning committee meeting, in which councillors first voted to reject the plan and then reversed their decision.

The council’s planners had recommended approving the plan, despite more than 140 objections from individuals and all the main representative local groups, largely because of its impact on Wykeham Terrace, St Nicholas and its churchyard.

The first vote was tied five-all and the hotel plans were rejected on the chairman’s casting vote by 6 votes to 5. But councillors could not then agree the reasons why they wanted to reject the plan. So the committee had a second vote and this time decided to approve the plans by 7 votes to 5, apparently because two councillors who had abstained first time round decided to change their votes and support the plan.

The Annual General Meeting of the Montpelier and Clifton Hill Association will be held at 7pm  on Thursday 21st June in the church of St Michael and All Angels, St Michael’s Place, Brighton. It will be followed by a talk on “The story of the Sussex pub” by the noted local historian Janet Pennington.

The main item on the AGM agenda is to approve a new constitution for the MCHA. This constitution is based on the Charity Commission’s model constitution. All members have been sent a summary of the changes. You can find more details about the changes by clicking here. And you can download the constitution here MCHA CONSTITUTION 2012 (Proposed). You can also obtain a paper copy of the proposed constitution by contacting the chairman, Jim Gowans, on 01273-325185. A limited number of copies will be available at the AGM, prior to the start, but be warned: the proposed constitution runs to 18 pages so it will take some time to read. Continue reading →

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. Continue reading →

The culture secretary has turned down the MCHA’s attempt to list the French protestant church listed. The church is in the city’s Regency Square conservation area, tucked away behind the seafront in a mews that partly serves the adjacent Metropole Hotel. The church closed in 2008 and is now a private house.

We asked English Heritage to list the building largely because of its cultural significance. But the culture secretary ruled that its architecture wasn’t good enough to be worth listing. The association decided not to appeal against this ruling. It is notoriously difficult to get Victorian buildings listed. Continue reading →

FRESH plans to build a high-rise hotel on the old ice rink site in Queen Square have been submitted by developers Stonehurst Estates. However, the plans show little change from those that the same developer submitted last year. The MCHA has renewed its objections to this high-rise horror.

The previous plans for a six-storey hotel were withdrawn at the end of January, just days before they were due to be considered by the planning committee. More than 200 people objected had objected to these plans. Continue reading →