More time for plans for Black Rock scheme (From The Argus)

More time for plans for Black Rock scheme

4:35am Thursday 13th September 2007

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Developers behind a £70million Olympic ice rink have been handed yet more time to submit a planning bid for the seafront site after failing to meet their original deadline.

Brighton and Hove City Council had set July 2007 as a cut-off point for a planning application to be submitted for the Brighton International Arena but after the scheme was bedevilled by delays, councillors agreed to extend the deadline by nine months.

The Black Rock project will include two ice rinks, a 11,000-seat concert hall, a 100-seat cinema, a museum, recording and dance studios, bars, shops and restaurants.

It is also hoped it will hold conferences while the Brighton Centre is closed for redevelopment.

Two million visitors are expected to visit the venue each year and it will create 126 permanent jobs and 250 part time positions.

But the venue has been beset by problems brought on by a raft of new proposed developments at the nearby marina.

The pledge in September 2003 was that the arena would be built in 2007.

David Pople, the managing director of Brighton Arena Ltd, then announced in 2006 that a planning application would be submitted in October and a series of other target dates have been and gone.

But Mr Pople told The Argus yesterday that the planning application would be submitted this autumn, well before the nine-month cut off point.

He said: "The original target was that the council wanted to get the planning application by July.

"We have been delayed by the other developments at the marina coming though.

"A lot of discussions have been taken place and we had to wait around for the release of information.

"We are still hoping to be on site next year.

"I am more confident now about when we will be submitting the planning application than before because we are towards the end of the pre-planning process."

He added that funding had been secured and that an announcement was imminent.

The Black Rock project has had to contend with the inner and outer marina schemes.

More than 2,000 homes are planned for both sites with a 40-storey and 28-storey block.

Councillor Keith Taylor, the convener of the Green Party, said he was disappointed by delays but that Black Rock was a good scheme.

He added that concerns remained about transport links to the venue.

He said:"It is a good scheme in isolation and for a lot of people the key is the amount of traffic that will be generated.

"How to get 10,000 people to the arena is the real problem."

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