No easy answer

Therefore it would seem natural to celebrate yesterday’s planning decision (as featured on our front page) as a triumph of people power and democracy in action.

After all the setting is beautiful.

It backs on to the South Downs with glorious views for miles around.

However, the issue is not that simple.

There is no escaping the fact that we are facing a housing crisis in Brighton and Hove. Put simply, there are not enough places for us all to live in.

We are trapped between the Downs to the north and the English Channel to the south. Something has got to give.

The council’s City Plan, which all parties agreed on, stated that there must be building on the city’s urban fringe.

Therefore you could argue that for members to then vote down this proposal in hypocritical.

At the end of the day the homes have to be built somewhere.

By voting down this proposal – rightly or wrongly – the problem is merely being pushed elsewhere.

Green Councillor Phelim MacCafferty raised an interesting point, stating that the Deans were only villages because they were built on land which would now have been included in the national park.

Whatever your view on the matter there is no easy answer to this. No doubt this will not be the end of it.

An appeal looks likely.

If successful the decision could prove extremely costly for the local authority, which is strapped for cash as it is. And after all that, the land to the south of Ovingdean Road could still be built on.