Friday, September 2 2016
£20m to end rail misery Cash injection to improve Southern services - see page 5
Albion stand firm Key players remain at the Seagulls – page 54
Hundreds object to designs for ‘ugliest building’ in city Complaints over the height and scale of development Bex Bastable
bex.bastable@jpress.co.uk @BexBastable
More than 400 letters of objection have flooded in to Brighton and Hove City Council in response to plans for a major housing development overlooking Preston Park. Developers insist the plans for Anston House, which it calls ‘the ugliest building in Sussex’, will bring millions into the local economy and provide 229 much-needed homes. Representatives from developer First Base lobbied passers-by in Jubilee Square, and handed out leaflets explaining the benefits of the scheme on Wednesday. But despite their best efforts, the proposal for Anston House has already seen a deluge of objections
from residents. As the Brighton & Hove Independent went to press, the council had received 421 objections and just 61 letters of support – although 50 of these support letters were from the developer’s own consultation. Many of the objections stem from the fact that the building would include towers of up to 15 storeys high, and others said the building was out of keeping with the area, which is one of the major gateways into the city. First Base’s plan is to demolish Anston House to make way for 229 homes and 283 workspaces. If approved, the new development would replace the existing ninestorey office block, which has been abandoned for more than 25 years. SEE PAGE 3
An artist’s impression of First Base’s vision for the Anston House site