Friday's Argus page 22 (Planning Applications)

[Hadlee]

Article by Andt Tatefirst paragraph)

"A Field in Falmer could be transformed into a Business park.
East Sussex County Council which owns Woolards field in Lewes Road Brighton has submitted an outline application to B&H City Council for a 10,000sqm development and 312 parking spaces plus access roads."

It goes on ! all very nice BUT I have the following questions:

1) This "Field" cannot be a million miles away from the Stadium VWN site ? my geography of this area is not great so anyone know ?

2) I thought ESCC are (or were) one of the main objectors to the Community stadium so wtf are they doing asking for a business park to be built in the area ? surely this is double standards ?

3) What is the position of Lewes DC & Falmer PC on this ? presumably they will state this is a ANOB and will strongly oppose this ?

Apparently this area is used as a "Leisure area" for people to walk their Dogs, so more an ANOB than the Falmer site ?

This article made me angry how dare ESCC object to our Application at Falmer and now do this !!!

 

[The Clown of Pevensey Bay]

Not completely sure where Woolards field is, to be honest. But it sounds like a scandal!

 

[Wardy]

Roll on the 1st of January and the Freedom of Information Act. On that day anyone will be able to walk in to Brighton and Hove City Council, Lewes Borough Council, East Sussex County Council and Falmer Parish Council and for a small fee be able to have ALL the infomation that they hold on Falmer and issues relating to it. Will be some interesting bits of paper there I think.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Woollards Field is located near the Southern Water offices, at the top end of Moulsecoomb.

Despite being well within the boundaries of Brighton & Hove, it is owned by East Sussex County Council. It is the site of a "balancing pond" required for surface water drainage arising from the Brighton By-pass.

It has been used for some time by young people living in the area as a motorbike track.

Site access will be extremely difficult (and costly) to achieve if a business park is to be developed. New access arrangements will be required at the junction of the A27 Brighton By-pass and the A270 Lewes Road.

It is a very long way from Falmer village and it is difficult to see how Falmer Parish Council would have an interest in the site. Whether Brighton & Hove City Council, the planning authority, would support a business park on the site is another question.

In my opinion, Woollards Field is too far away from the Falmer Stadium site to have any impact on the Albion's plans - although, if access was improved, it could - at a stretch - be used for car parking. But it would be the best part of a mile away from the stadium.

It is not in the AONB. It is called Woollards Field, because the Moulsecoomb estate was built on what was previously Woollards Farm.

 

[somerset]

Article by Andt Tatefirst paragraph)

"A Field in Falmer could be transformed into a Business park.
East Sussex County Council which owns Woolards field in Lewes Road Brighton has submitted an outline application to B&H City Council for a 10,000sqm development and 312 parking spaces plus access roads."

It goes on ! all very nice BUT I have the following questions:

1) This "Field" cannot be a million miles away from the Stadium VWN site ? my geography of this area is not great so anyone know ?

2) I thought ESCC are (or were) one of the main objectors to the Community stadium so wtf are they doing asking for a business park to be built in the area ? surely this is double standards ?

3) What is the position of Lewes DC & Falmer PC on this ? presumably they will state this is a ANOB and will strongly oppose this ?

Apparently this area is used as a "Leisure area" for people to walk their Dogs, so more an ANOB than the Falmer site ?

This article made me angry how dare ESCC object to our Application at Falmer and now do this !!!

That is probably why they are objecting to us, any decision in favour of falmer would probably queer the pitch for this proposal, bieng another development in roughly the same area.

 

[dougdeep]

Wouldn't the stadium access roads make this more viable?

 

[beorhthelm]

Roll on the 1st of January and the Freedom of Information Act. On that day anyone will be able to walk in to Brighton and Hove City Council, Lewes Borough Council, East Sussex County Council and Falmer Parish Council and for a small fee be able to have ALL the infomation that they hold on Falmer and issues relating to it. Will be some interesting bits of paper there I think.

seriously, you think thats how it'll work? more likly you'll have to fill in a 4 page request form, pay a fee and then be told 3 months later that they cant release the information as it eithe relates to an ongoing court matter, is commercially sensitive or lost.

 

[Brighton Breezy]

I think Beorhthelm is spot on.

They will still be able to withold information that is in the interests of national security and I have been studying this lately and there are dozens of other loopholes that people can inact to keep things secret.

A step in the right direction yes but nowhere near total freedom of information.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Wouldn't the stadium access roads make this more viable?

No.

Woollards Field requires entirely new access. It's north of the railway, the stadium is south of the railway.

This is where it is:-

The yellow splodge marks the balancing pond. The rest of the site is the field to the southwest of the pond. Access to the site would either have to be off the Lewes Road or via Newick Road, Moulsecoomb.

The large white-ish building on the right is Falmer School.

 

[dougdeep]

Cheers for that.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

There will be some commercially sensitive information relating to Woollards Field that won't readily be released by the landowner, East Sussex County Council.

For a start, the County Council are seeking to sell the site to a developer. Therefore you won't be able to find out how much they think it's worth. Quite right too. As an ESCC council tax payer, I would expect them to get as much as possible for it.

As the Argus article makes clear, the application by the County Council for outline planning permission for business use is no doubt intended to increase the value of the site.

Of course, if Brighton & Hove City Council refuse planning permission (which is possible) or impose conditions requiring huge expenditure on new access roads (which is almost certain), then the value of the land goes down.

Either way, it wouldn't be in the interests of East Sussex County Council (or its council tax payers) to allow all information about the site to be put into the public domain. That would be playing into the hands of the commercial developers.

 

[Wardy]

seriously, you think thats how it'll work? more likly you'll have to fill in a 4 page request form, pay a fee and then be told 3 months later that they cant release the information as it eithe relates to an ongoing court matter, is commercially sensitive or lost.

The way it will work is as follows. You make a request about what information you want. A 30 day count down then starts. In that time the Council (or other goverment body) as to get together a list of all the information it holds on the said subject, and respond to you saying what they have and how much the admin charge will be to provided it. At that point the 30 day count down stops. You then have 3 months (not 100% sure of that was bored at this point of the presentation) to say that you will go ahead with the information. The 30 day count down then continues, by the end of which they need to have provided the information.

So if on say 1 January you ask for it, and it takes them untill the 20th to tell you what they have, you then have to the 20 April to say if you want it or not. They then have 10 more days to provide it.

Also they will not be ale to just say "Oh we cannot find......" or "That as been mislaid". Without a very good reason. If the goverment office in charge thinks that they have not acted correctly either in the keeping of information or in the supply of what they have, the Cheif Execitive can go to jail.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

There was something else yesterday in the list of planning applications. The application was from the Albion and related to one of the terms & conditions to do with being at Withdean.

What's that about?

 

[dougdeep]

Permission to play on Sundays.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Oh right, thought perhaps they were having to ask for permission to change the breed of horse in the burgers or something.

It's probably in the terms of the lease somewhere.