Plans to add a storey of flats onto a commercial building have been given prior approval.

This additional floor in the Preece House building, in Davigdor Road, Hove, will house seven homes if the development goes ahead.

These flats will all be one-bedroom homes with open plan living and dining areas.

They would also each have a separate bedroom and shower room.

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When plans for an additional sixth storey were first submitted in October Brighton and Hove City Council rejected it over fears it would make the commercial site appear "over-developed".

At the time, the council also said it feared an extra storey would cause "significant harm" to the character of the building.

A spokesman for the council said when refusing the application in October: "The proposed additional storey, by reason of its height, bulk, scale, positioning, proportions, detailing and vertical emphasis would relate poorly to the existing building and the wider street scene, resulting in a top heavy and incongruous addition of undue prominence and lacking in subservience.

"The proposed development would result in the site appearing over-developed and the building over-extended, causing significant harm to the character and appearance of the recipient building and the wider street scene”.

However, applicant Westmede Properties Ltd has since made amendments to the plans and argued that the council has already approved other tall buildings in the area.

Westmede Properties Ltd argued in this new application: "This is already a mixed-use area where residential and commercial uses already successfully co-exist alongside each other.

"The proposed residential uses will have little impact on the adjacent hospital, nor on the St Mary and St Abram Orthodox Church opposite and will be compatible with the residential-led developments adjacent to this site."

Alongside the extra storey, the plans also include basement parking spaces for seven cars and space to store up to 60 bikes. 

The developers have said the height of this additional storey will be the same as previous ones in the building to minimise any negative aesthetic impacts. 

They said the extra storey "will be virtually impossible to see" from ground level.

Prior approval was granted on March 25 by Brighton and Hove City Council.

It is not known when work will begin.