Plans for a large student accommodation block could be thrown out following a flood of objections.
The Co-op Group has applied to Brighton and Hove City Council to demolish the former department store in London Road, Brighton, and replace it with a building ranging from three to six storeys which would provide accommodation for more than 400 students and contain four retail units at ground floor level.
But the proposal, which will come before the council’s planning committee next Wednesday (December 14) has been recommended for refusal by officers who say the building would be an over-development of the site.
Objections have been received from 46 residents, Ditchling Rise Residents’ Association, St Peter and North Laine ward councillors Lizzie Deane and Pete West, The Brighton Society, the North Laine Community Association and the London Road Area Local Action Team.
They say the development is not in keeping with the area and would overshadow its surroundings.
Other objectors have said the building would make the area feel claustrophobic, increase noise disturbance, exacerbate parking issues and that it would be the loss of a landmark building.
The six storeys would contain cluster flats with bedrooms set around them, 54 studio rooms and a four-bedroom student house.
There would also be three landscaped courtyards at first storey level as well as a small courtyard on the ground floor which would contain a launderette, an area for rubbish disposal, communal cycle parking for 136 bikes.
There would also be nine on-street cycle spaces for the retail units.
Vehicles would access the building from Baker Street.
Jean Calder, who lives nearby, said a proper debate was needed so that residents could be part of the consultation process.
She said: “There is a total lack of facilities for people with dementia in the city centre and that would be an ideal place, whether the Co-op would be prepared to do that I don’t know.”
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