Brighton and Hove Council approves Moulsecoomb £87m home development

Planning permission has been granted for an £87m development of 212 council homes in Brighton.

The site in Moulsecoomb will include flats up to eight storeys high and a row of eight semi-detached houses.

The plans also include a library, doctors' surgery, pharmacy, 3G sports pitches and skate park.

Despite concerns raised by residents, Brighton and Hove City Council's Planning Committee unanimously approved the plans at a meeting on Wednesday.

There are more than 4,500 households on Brighton and Hove's housing waiting list and a further 1,800 in temporary homes, according to the council's agent, Guy Dixon, of Savills.

"These proposals seek to provide new affordable homes to address a clear need in the city," he said.

"One hundred percent of these homes will come forward as affordable housing for local people."

The site in Hodshrove Road and Hodshrove Lane - currently known as Moulsecoomb Hub North - will have 15 wheelchair accessible homes, as well as community space with rooms to rent, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Moulsecoomb resident Adrian Hill said he feared the centre of the suburb "will change negatively forever".

He said: "The current traffic-free nature walk will become an overlooked, dark, dense car park."

At the meeting, Green councillor Sue Shanks argued the 3G artificial sports pitches were bad for biodiversity, but backed the scheme, citing the need for more homes.

"In terms of consultation here, perhaps there are lessons we need to learn about developments on our estates where we have a lot of our existing housing which was built initially as social housing," she said.

"It is our land and we want to build there but we do need to make sure we take residents with us."

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