Councillors have given the green light to build a passageway into Brighton’s first new lane in 30 years and demolish North Street's oldest shop.

Brighton and Hove City Council planning committee narrowly voted in favour by seven votes to five to demolish the grade II listed Timpson shop in North Street to create a new thoroughfare into The Lanes.

Applicants RBS and architects Morgan Carn Partnership proposed building the new route from North Street into the £8 million Hannington’s Lane scheme which was granted permission in March last year.

Councillors have voted against council officers who had recommended the plans should be rejected because the loss of the shop was not outweighed by the public benefits that the new scheme would bring.

Opponents to the scheme had campaigned to retain the Timpson store as it had been in “continuous commercial use” as a shop since the 1780s and suggested that an alternative Lanes link could be found.

The applicants said that the project was a “once in a lifetime opportunity” to resolve long-standing problems in accessing The Lanes.

John McLean, director at architects Morgan Carn Partnership , argued that the demolition was justified because it would open up access to what he considered to the more historical Puget’s Cottage behind and warned that the seventeenth century would remain landlocked for another generation.

They said that an alternative suggestion of building an access route through the adjacent shop to Timpson would be an “oppressive” tunnel that would attract anti-social behaviour and become “a toilet”.

The planning committee voted in favour of minding to grant permission with final approval from the council's head of development control Jeanette Walsh required while listed building consent will be referred to the local government minister.