Local engagement

We have shaped our plans through extensive pre-application engagement and consultation with Brighton & Hove City Council, statutory consultees including South Downs National Park Authority, Design South East, local stakeholders and the local community since October 2019.

Local feedback has helped us to develop a proposal that seeks to balance how this rare brownfield site can be optimised to provide much-needed new homes in response to Government and local planning policy whilst taking this feedback on board wherever possible. Examples include how local feedback has informed the range of building types and architectural styles across the site. We have sought to establish an identity that responds to the site’s history and varied surroundings, such as the introduction of three storey townhouses on the site’s western edge to respond to the existing terraced houses opposite, and the introduction of a gasholder inspired building to respond to the site’s industrial past.

Our previous consultations

St William first contacted local residents and stakeholders in 2020 to present ideas for the site and to hear the community’s feedback and aspirations. We then revised the plans based on that feedback and consulted the community again in 2021. People have engaged with us in a wide variety of ways, from feedback forms and emails to webinars and one-to-one meetings.

Brighton & Hove City Council also held two consultations on the planning application – one in 2021 after we submitted the original application, and then another in 2022 after we submitted some amended plans. The consultation material from earlier versions of our plans is included in our planning application.

All of this feedback has been useful and has helped us to develop the plans.

Future engagement

Strengthening and building lasting positive relationships with the local community is important to us.

If planning permission is granted, we will continue our engagement work through activities such as regular updates on the project website, newsletters and email communication with the community, establishing a community liaison group, attending meetings and events, and working with young people to provide career insights and opportunities to work in the built environment. We will also create a Community Plan for new and existing residents to enable local people to make the most out of the proposed amenities and connect with their new neighbours.