COUNCILLORS have kicked into touch plans by Brighton and Hove Albion for a £16 million hotel on the casting vote of the committee’s chairwoman.

Brighton and Hove City Council's planning committee voted narrowly against the club's plans for a new hotel at the American Express Community Stadium.

Opponents criticised the design of the scheme as “mediocre” and “out of keeping” with the award-winning design of the £100 million stadium.

But other councillors disagreed with Labour stalwart Les Hamilton pointing out the “contradictory” approach of criticising the hotel design against the stadium considering the outcry against the stadium itself when it was first proposed.

Planning committee chairwoman Julie Cattell gave the casting vote after councillors were torn five in favour and five against the proposals.

Albion representatives left immediately after the decision and voiced their disapproval of dissenting councillors throughout the meeting.

The club’s executive director Martin Perry told councillors the club would not be coming back to the committee with a different design and told The Argus after the decision he needed to speak with the club’s board before deciding their next step.

Labour ward councillor Mo Marsh criticised her council colleagues and said she was “extremely disappointed” about the missed opportunity for more jobs and economic benefit for the city.

The proposed three-storey hotel would have 150 bedrooms, as well as a restaurant and bar available to fans and hotel guests, a gymnasium and meeting room while in the basement it would host an NHS radiotherapy unit.

The hotel would run as a franchise agreement with one of the world’s leading hotel operators Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide which also runs Sheraton and Westin hotels around the globe.

Council planning officers recommended officers' reject the plans on design grounds despite only receiving three objections from residents which focussed on increased traffic.

Several leading political figures had come out in favour of the hotel plans prior to the meeting including Labour trio council leader Warren Morgan, MP Peter Kyle and Lord Bassam of Brighton as well as Conservative MP Simon Kirby.

Cllr Marsh, of the Moulsecoomb and Bevendean ward, said: “I can speak on behalf of all three ward councillors when I say that I am extremely disappointed and frankly gobsmacked at this decision.

“When you think about all the support this scheme had and only three objections, the decision is very surprising.”

COUNCILLORS EXPRESS MIXED VIEWS ABOUT THE DESIGN

ALBION fans have endured their fair share of nail-biting moments down the years and last night’s planning committee certainly had its drama with the fate of the club’s £16 million hotel plans sealed by one vote.

Planning committee chairwoman Julie Cattell, whose casting vote led to the plans being rejected after an hour of debate, said the committee should not have its “arms twisted over mediocre design”.

She was joined in criticising the scheme’s design by fellow Labour councillor Maggie Barradell, who eventually abstained, who said it “grates against the stadium” and said disputes over how much development money the club should spend on sustainable transport and skills support in return for the go-ahead had left a “sour taste in the mouth”. 

Queen’s Park councillor Adrian Morris said architects KSS, who also designed the Amex, had failed to take into account the design of the stadium, while fellow Labour councillor Jackie O’Quinn described the hotel design as “utilitarian”.  Green councillor Pete West raised concerns about the hotel’s impact on views from the South Downs National Park and Stanmer Park.

Patcham councillor Carol Theobald said the hotel design complemented the stadium while fellow Conservative Jayne Bennett said she was delighted with proposals for a radiotherapy unit.

Coldean councillor Michael Inkpin-Leissner said he could not refuse the hotel on design grounds because of its similarity to the stadium while Conservative councillor Lee Wares said the designs “were not great but not bad enough to refuse”.

In another quirk of fate, the decision was made by only 11 councillors as Green councillor and former planning chairman Phelim MacCafferty was unable to find a last-minute substitute.