A DEVELOPER is asking councillors to relax the exacting green credentials required for offices on the ground floor of an eight-storey block of flats being built in Hove.

Martin Homes, which has taken over the project since planning permission was granted more than three years ago, is asking for the offices to be certified in a more realistic way.

Work is under way on the building on a site in Davigdor Road, Hove, which is almost half an acre in size. It was formerly the location of Hyde housing association’s local office.

The plot sits between the new Artisan flats, on the corner of Lyon Close, and P&H House, previously the head office of the collapsed grocery wholesaler Palmer and Harvey.

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The ground-floor offices are being built after the global conference business Imex said that it was outgrowing its current premises in the Agora building, in Ellen Street, Hove.

The latest application said that the ground-floor offices in Davigdor Road would be structured like a hollow shell – and that adding the measures required for a higher sustainability rating would add costs without benefit.

Experts from Delta Green Environmental Design, from Lewes, were brought in – and a report cited challenges in sourcing appropriate recycled building materials for the office area of the £22 million scheme.

Delta Green said: “The potential ‘credit’ for recycled aggregates cannot be targeted. The industry is currently struggling to source materials.

“And the added complication of requiring recycled aggregates from close to the site, within budget and compliant with the required British standards, is incredibly challenging … It is important to target credits that are realistic to achieve.”

Brighton and Hove City Council planning officials support the proposal and have asked councillors to sign off the change at a Planning Committee meeting next week.

If the committee agrees, the conditions attached to the planning permission will be amended to require a BREEAM rating of “very good” rather than “excellent”.

BREEAM is the widely recognised Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method of rating sustainability in buildings including in relation to energy, materials, waste, pollution and water.

The application to amend the plans was submitted in the name of the former owner, Withdean Commercial Property, which is run by Imex bosses Ray Bloom, 76, and Carina Bauer, 45.

Work is under way at the site which Hyde sold to Withdean Commercial Property for £5.1 million, with planning permission for 68 flats.

But covenants affecting the site led to revised plans being drawn up – and a more modest scheme has since been granted planning permission, with 52 flats now under construction.

Imex wanted new premises in the hope of creating up to 30 jobs in addition to the 60 staff already working for the company when planning permission was granted in 2019.

Withdean Commercial Property has since sold the site for an undisclosed sum to Martin Homes although Imex is still understood to want to move into the ground-floor office space.

The council’s Planning Committee is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 2pm next Wednesday (7 September). The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.