New plans for former Brighton Co-op

8:57am Friday 27th July 2012 in News

The former Co-op in London Road, Brighton The former Co-op in London Road, Brighton

Developers want to turn the former Co-op building in London Road, Brighton, into accommodation for 351 students.

After previous plans to bring the 80-year-old property back into use were rejected by Brighton and Hove City Council , revised proposals are now being drafted.

As part of the scheme students would be asked to sign a tenancy agreement encouraging them not to bring cars to ease congestion and pressure on parking spaces.

A spokesman for the Watkin Jones Group, which is behind the plans, said the measure had been “highly effective” in a number of other projects it had been involved in across the country.

He said: “If a student is found to have a car, and there have been very little instances of this to date, they are reminded of the contents of the tenancy agreement, which is a legal contract. The ultimate recourse for contravention is suspension or eviction. This has never had to happen to date, given the effectiveness of the methods of preventing car use.”

The previous application for the building, which has stood empty since 2007, was refused by the council’s planning committee in December 2011. It proposed to clear the entire site and replace it with a completely new building for 407 students.

New design

The new design, for retail outlets on the ground floor and student accommodation above, is significantly reduced in scale and retains the façade of the original 1930s building. Secure, covered storage for up to 120 bicycles is proposed.

Students will also be encouraged to use the existing public transport links.

It would be managed by a specialist student accommodation company but the University of Sussex will allocate the tenants.

Charles Dudley, the university’s director of residential, sport and trading services, said: “The London Road site would enable us to offer housing to undergraduates and postgraduates who would otherwise be housed in the private sector.”

The plans were shown at a public exhibition this week. Comments will be accepted until Tuesday and a planning application is due to be submitted in August. If approved the site could be ready for the 2013/14 academic year.

For more details email co-op@genesistp.co.u k or call 01243 534050.

 

Comments(21)

Crystal Ball says...
9:03am Fri 27 Jul 12

What about turning it into a, er, Co-op?!

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john5001 says...
9:10am Fri 27 Jul 12

yer its just so two faced. you cant drive cars . but we can

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george smith says...
9:14am Fri 27 Jul 12

Oxbridge doesn't allow students to bring cars. We will wait and see how Sussex fares

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HJarrs says...
9:27am Fri 27 Jul 12

There should be at least one bike place per resident and provision of a few car club cars as this will encourage students not to bring cars while providing some access for them and the wider community. I hope that the council will make this a requirement of planning permission.

Whilst it is hard to see a car being needed by the vast majority of students, that is also the case with many in the general population. Pointing out the parking problems and showing the alternatives will most likely do the trick. I don't think that car parking should be tied up with the tennancy agreement, that is simply draconian.

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NickBtn says...
9:35am Fri 27 Jul 12

351 students but only 120 cycle parking spaces. How is that meant to work?

A retail and student accommodation mix is progress

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mimseycal says...
9:35am Fri 27 Jul 12

Next we will get dress codes/church attendance requirements attached to tenancy agreements.

You are hereby notified of the termination of your tenancy agreement as you were seen eating a hamburger! Please vacate the premises by the end of next week.

Aside from which, it will end up in an expensive lawsuit. Mark my words ... A student suddenly becomes mobility impaired but still wants to stay in the digs ... requires a car under the motability scheme and a blue badge to boot.

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LB says...
9:41am Fri 27 Jul 12

"Next we will get dress codes/church attendance requirements attached to tenancy agreements"

our taxes already fund schools where church attendance is a part being admitted, why not housing too?

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AmboGuy says...
9:49am Fri 27 Jul 12

If it gets the students out of Hanover then I'm all for it, send them anywhere else......please.

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Goldenwight says...
10:00am Fri 27 Jul 12

...students would be asked to sign a tenancy agreement encouraging them not to bring cars...

If a student is found to have a car...they are reminded of the contents of the tenancy agreement, which is a legal contract

So, is it a request, or is it a legal requirement that they do not bring cars? Are visitors with cars allowed?

And even if it were a legal requirement, is there any bar on that requirement being dropped at sometime in the future?

Come on, Argus, do a little intelligent reporting here and let us know- some of us might wish to object to the planning application depending in which is the case.

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NickBrt says...
10:06am Fri 27 Jul 12

I totally agree with Amboguy. Hanover is a nightmare to live now. Although the students are the ones who make noise all night long, litter the pavemetns with discarded fagends and pizza boxes it's the developers who i think should
be reined in and not allowed to turn family homes into multi multi occupancy, finding any little space for a money making bedroom for a noisy student.

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mimseycal says...
10:08am Fri 27 Jul 12

LB wrote:
"Next we will get dress codes/church attendance requirements attached to tenancy agreements"

our taxes already fund schools where church attendance is a part being admitted, why not housing too?
Not exclusively. Not anymore ... They may prioritise but where children meet all other admission requirements bar the church attendance one and another child has the church attendance requirement but not the locality ... then they are required to offer a place to the non church attender.

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Valerie Paynter says...
10:32am Fri 27 Jul 12

It is now common for developments coming forward to be given 'car-free' planning consents, there being no provision for cars in their applications.

You can't, however, prevent visitors to the building bringing cars into the area, so this development could only REDUCE the amount of cars being brought into the area.

The bigger problem is would it just increase the university's ability to increase its number of students, at the city's expense?

Typically, university accommodation only available for 1st year students and then they have to hit the public rental market. Or parents buy them an investment house they then fill with fellow-students whilst doing degrees.

This building SHOULD be used for housing the vast numbers of ALL university students who are currently displacing working age, non university, 'other' people, in the rental market and making it impossible for the city to have an affordably housed work force who provide council tax income. I know of experienced, full-time hospital nurses who can only afford to live in a bedsit, etc., etc., etc.

Students are exempt from council tax. Students make housing availability in this city scarce and therefore ridiculously expensive.

A cost-benefit analysis of their financial worth to the city economy should be done that exposes how much they COST this council.

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Valerie Paynter says...
10:38am Fri 27 Jul 12

Goldenwight wrote:
...students would be asked to sign a tenancy agreement encouraging them not to bring cars... If a student is found to have a car...they are reminded of the contents of the tenancy agreement, which is a legal contract So, is it a request, or is it a legal requirement that they do not bring cars? Are visitors with cars allowed? And even if it were a legal requirement, is there any bar on that requirement being dropped at sometime in the future? Come on, Argus, do a little intelligent reporting here and let us know- some of us might wish to object to the planning application depending in which is the case.
Unless this application specified 'car-free' you should be objecting and demanding it is a fully car-free development.

This means no on-site parking provision and it also means NOT ELIGABLE FOR AN ON-STREET PARKING PERMIT.

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billy goat-gruff says...
10:45am Fri 27 Jul 12

It's great news that in the latest plans the 1931 facade is to be preserved (but not the 60s bits either side). Presumably the 25 bus will now be diverted up London Road?

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Nick Brighton says...
11:12am Fri 27 Jul 12

The issue of visitors cars is not a problem, as they can use the London Road multi-storey or Oxford Street car parks. For the residents, it's a non-issue, as they won't find anywhere to park, and they can be excluded from resident's parking waiting lists. 120 bike spaces does seem too few.

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AGT999 says...
11:42am Fri 27 Jul 12

It would be better for Brighton if all the colleges and universities were closed and the town given back to the true residents and voters. These students, who pay no council tax, is one of the main reason Brighton has a Green, left wing council and the cost of private rents is so high.

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Thisusername says...
12:17pm Fri 27 Jul 12

In Baker St, we have 2 years of rebuilding the market behind, I wonder when this work would start and how long it will take. The initial plans proposed 5 stories, I dont know why they can't just convert what is there. Plus when it is built, will there be some kind of warden on site to keep order?

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paul76 says...
1:26pm Fri 27 Jul 12

So they aren't allowed a car, and only a third of them are "allowed" a bike. Will give low life scum a nice load of wheels to kick out of shape for the first week they are all left chained outside to railings if it goes ahead. And then a nice big scrap heap of unwanted bikes for the council to remove after 6 months.

Still, in keeping with being Green, the council would be able to make some cash by taking the bikes to a scrap merchant.

Or giving them to some hippy to make "art" out of.

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HJarrs says...
2:34pm Fri 27 Jul 12

Ah! Bash a student opportunity. There are some idiots about. However, the students living next to me haven't made a peep for 2 years and their place is spotless, but that would spoil the stereotype.

The major rubbish problem I encounter in Hanover is that created by seagulls on bin day. I am not sure they can enrol in university?

I don't blame students for the housing crisis in B&H. I do blame successive Tory, Labour and now coalition government for a shambolic housing policy, for deregualting rents, for egging on housing booms, for ending council house building and lacklustre Labour and Tory local administrations that also did little.

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rolivan says...
5:51pm Fri 27 Jul 12

HJarrs wrote:
Ah! Bash a student opportunity. There are some idiots about. However, the students living next to me haven't made a peep for 2 years and their place is spotless, but that would spoil the stereotype.

The major rubbish problem I encounter in Hanover is that created by seagulls on bin day. I am not sure they can enrol in university?

I don't blame students for the housing crisis in B&H. I do blame successive Tory, Labour and now coalition government for a shambolic housing policy, for deregualting rents, for egging on housing booms, for ending council house building and lacklustre Labour and Tory local administrations that also did little.
I think it is a brilliant idea they need to sort out Baker Street and get rid of Single and double storey buildings.The City badly needs more Accommodation.

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Helena Handcart says...
12:27am Sun 29 Jul 12

Social Engineering, just more votes for the Greens......

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