DEVELOPERS who fail to offer affordable housing should be sent packing from the city, a campaigner has claimed.

Save Hove campaigner Valerie Paynter said Brighton and Hove City Council needed to take a tougher line with developers who made no effort to meet the authority’s affordable housing quotas.

The call comes after planning officers recommended for approval plans to build a nine-storey tower on a former petrol station site despite developers Rocco Homes originally offering no affordable housing whatsoever.

Only after the commissioning of a report from the independent district valuer has it been agreed for 20 per cent affordable housing – half the required number under council policy.

The plans for the former Texaco garage site in Kingsway, Hove, which was closed in May last year after being damaged by a lorry, propose 58 one, two, three and four bed apartments.

To be fully compliant with council policy, the scheme should provide 24 affordable flats.

But following discussions and the independent report, the firm has now agreed to provide six homes for affordable rent and six for shared ownership.

The site will also be home to a new Co-op store and the refurbishment of the currently closed Alibi pub to create a café with three flats above.

The plans have attracted 68 letters of objection with complaints about the loss of light for residents in Sussex Road, the concern about a build-up of tall buildings in the area including the redeveloped King Alfred, the loss of an historic coach house to the rear of the Alibi and the impact on independent traders of another chain business.

There have also been calls to retain the locally listed Alibi as a pub.

The plans have been backed by the Hove Civic and Regency societies who say the “very elegant” designed building will rejuvenate the area and replace an existing eyesore.

Ms Paynter said: “The council seems to be happy with negotiation on this policy but either they have a policy or they don’t.

“They should just reject them straight away if developers aren’t prepared to offer 40 per cent affordable.

“Planning officers are not trained to negotiate.

“If the city council has decided to go down this route where planning policy is negotiable then they better get a team of skilled negotiators in.”

A decision on the plans is expected at Brighton and Hove City Council planning committee next Wednesday.