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Who will pay if King Alfred fails?
Why do we hear so much about
the prospect of affordable housing
at the King Alfred, when it is
already there? I refer, of course,
to the vans which are, contrary
to regulations, allowed to park
night and day on the nearby
seafront road.
Motley as they are, these vehicles
are in better shape than the King
Alfred which, to use a naval expression,
is rotting for lack of a ha'porth
of tar. Not only are zig-zags developing
in brickwork - a failure of basic
maintenance - but, most unsustainably,
many windows are kept open
overnight in all weathers.
With this in mind, I recently asked
a public question of Brighton and
Hove City Council's leader, Brian
Oxley, at a policy and resources committee
meeting. In reply to my question
about the proportion of costs
that would be met by the council for
work so far incurred by the proposed
development, he gave me the familiar
line that these were being paid by
the developer Karis and that the
council would gain a sports centre.
Puzzled by this, I then asked a
supplementary question about the
proportion of any costs devolved
upon key player Southern Housing.
And whether the council had discussed
with Southern Housing the
publicly available, very low rating
given to Karis by the well-known
business analysts Dun and Bradstreet.
Coun Oxley said that he knew
nothing about these two matters.
In light of all this, should the
scheme founder, perhaps Councillor
Oxley could enlighten us as to who
will foot the repair bill for what was
until recently a perfectly functioning
sports centre.
Nigel Furness,
Cambridge Road, Hove
10:05am Wednesday 5th December 2007
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