Councillors approve 20 council flats in place of Oakley House on Edward Street

The council can now knock down Oakley House, on the corner of Edward Street and Tillstone Street, and build a block of 20 council flats. Its Planning Committee voted unanimously for the £5.3m scheme at Hove Town Hall on Wednesday afternoon, as first reported by Brighton and Hove News¹.

We covered the plans before the vote. The council applied to itself, and its own architecture and design team drew the block. It will be up to five storeys, with nine one-bedroom, eight two-bedroom and three three-bedroom flats, all at affordable rent. The building has six council flats now, so the city gains 14 homes.

The current block dates from the 1970s and holds flats above the Wood Store. Labour councillor Julie Cattell asked what would happen to the tenants. The committee heard that one tenant remains and talks are under way to find them a suitable home. The Wood Store is moving too.

Every flat gets a private balcony and its own front door. There will be communal gardens with space for growing food, a green roof and air source heat pumps, and no car parking. Conditions ask for an EPC rating of B, 20 swift cavities and 20 bee bricks.

Some councillors wanted more. Green councillor Sue Shanks said the block should be taller, given the shortage of housing. “It’s a shame to be so limited in our ambition,” she said. Councillor Cattell said taller buildings bring extra legal requirements, costs and delays.

The catch: none of the flats is designed to be fully wheelchair accessible, because the site is hilly, and 15 letters of objection came in, raising the height and the effect on the nearby East Cliff and Queen’s Park conservation areas among other things. Labour councillor Sam Parrott and Green councillor Kerry Pickett said they would have preferred better wheelchair provision. Committee chair Alison Thomson, a Labour councillor, pointed to the council’s related scheme at nearby Hereford Court. That application, for the car park across Edward Street, was still being considered when officers wrote their report. It proposes eight fully wheelchair-accessible homes.

Conservative councillor Carol Theobald praised the design and the 14 extra affordable homes.