Controversial plans for a town centre supermarket will be put before councillors early next year.

Sainsbury's had its proposals for a superstore, industry and housing on land next to Brighton Station turned down after a public inquiry in 1998.

At a community planning event last month, a new consortium, including Sainsbury's and site owners Railtrack, presented ideas for a mixed use development including a smaller supermarket.

But local people and community activists were unanimous they did not approve of the supermarket and wanted a mixed use urban village instead.

Now Railtrack has told Brighton and Hove Council it has a development agreement which ties it to Sainsbury's for the foreseeable future.

If it does not get enough money from selling the site it will almost certainly become a storage and operational depot.

Railtrack says it is planning to put forward a scheme to the council for a mixed use development, including a supermarket, early next year.

The planning inspector at the public inquiry indicated a mixed use development might be acceptable.

Railtrack says the new scheme will meet both the inspector's criteria and the council's planning policy.

Council planning

policy manager Nigel Green said he could not comment on that until he saw any scheme. But he is recommending the council's ruling cabinet set up a working group to develop the ideas from the October forum and to decide how best to respond to the planning application.

Mr Green said: "A mixed use urban village was the general approach favoured at the community planning event. One use that was unanimously rejected was a super-

market.

"It must also be recognised that the site is both valuable and in private ownership. If anything is going to happen, then it will only be through producing a brief that brings value to the site and is economically viable."

Mr Green said the council would need to treat the plans strictly on their merits. Normally there would be negotiations with the developer to get the best deal possible for the community.

But he added: "This would also cause considerable anger with those sections of the community who have expressed in the strongest terms their opposition to a supermarket. They would see any discussions as a sell-out to the developers rather than a realistic assessment of the situation."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.