Planners back 20 council flats on Edward Street, with a vote next Wednesday

The council wants to knock down Oakley House, on the corner of Edward Street and Tillstone Street, and build 20 flats at affordable rent in its place. Planning officers recommend councillors approve it when the Planning Committee meets at Hove Town Hall on Wednesday 28 October.

The building now has six council rented flats above a ground-floor shop. Since the 1970s the shop was Oakley Motor and Marine, which sold and serviced outboard engines. The Wood Store, which collects and reuses waste wood, is there now on a short-term lease. The new block would be all homes: nine one-bed, eight two-bed and three three-bed flats, a net gain of 14.

The council is the applicant and its own architecture and design team drew the plans. The block would be five storeys at its highest, dropping to four on Tillstone Street and two next to the Grade II listed terrace at 57 to 59 Egremont Place. It started out at six. Officers asked for it to come down during the application, and the heights were cut.

Every flat would get a private balcony. There would be communal gardens on the north side, with space for growing food, a tool store and seating. Heating and hot water would come from air source heat pumps on the roof, alongside a green roof and solar panels. There would be no car or motorcycle parking on site. Conditions ask for an EPC rating of B, at least 20 swift cavities and 20 bee bricks.

There’s a catch or two. There were 15 letters of objection, citing the height, loss of light and privacy, the nearby conservation areas and disruption during building work. The council’s heritage team found a “low level of harm” to the Queen’s Park and East Cliff conservation areas and the listed homes next door. None of the flats is designed to be fully wheelchair accessible, which officers call “a drawback of the scheme”. A lift would serve every floor.

Officers say the new homes outweigh that harm. The city can show only about a year and a half of housing land supply, against the five years it should have.

Across Edward Street, a separate application is still being considered: a 12-storey block of 36 affordable flats for over-55s and a six-storey block of 17.

Anyone who wants to speak at the meeting has to tell Democratic Services by noon on Thursday. Oakley House is the only major application on the agenda, and majors are always heard first.