Group wants alternative vision for London Road (From The Argus)

Group wants alternative vision for London Road

12:15pm Tuesday 22nd July 2008

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People who live and work in a busy street can have their say on what they would like to see in the area.

Another London Road Campaign (ALR) is staging a community planning event at the Calvary Church, next door to Preston Circus fire station, on Tuesday. The drop-in session is designed to help build a picture of London Road by listening to the aspirations of local people.

There are redevelopment plans for the northern half of the area, which include a new three-storey Tesco, the demolition of everything in the block bounded by London Road, York Hill, New England Street and New England Road, including New England House, a 950- space car park, other new buildings and a return to two-way traffic in many of the surrounding streets.

Karen Gardham, from ALR, said: “Since May we have been holding meetings telling people what Tesco was planning. Now the scale of their plans has been revealed and it’s even worse than we feared.

“The community is telling us that razing the whole area will wipe out all traces of Brighton. The hundreds of jobs, the small specialist shops and the area’s contribution to our local economy will be lost and replaced with a sterile, bland and bleak retail shed.

“We need to hear local people and trader’s voices so we can build an alternative vision.”

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