It’s time again for the residents of Patcham to stand up to protect the village that we all know and love. A public inquiry is being held in June into plans to demolish 5 homes in the Old London Road. If you do not want to see this happen, come along at 10 am on Tuesday 13th June 2017 to Brighton Town Hall to watch the start of the inquiry. The Inspector already has 350 letters of objection to the development but having a crowd of people there brings home the strength of local feeling.

The national builder McCarthy and Stone applied last year to Brighton and Hove Council to demolish 46 to 54 Old London Road Patcham and replace them and their gardens with a large 3 storey block of 44 flats and a car park. The flats will provide ‘assisted living’ for the frail elderly. In January the Council's Planning Committee unanimously turned down the planning application. The developer has now appealed to the Planning Inspectorate for a decision.

The public inquiry by the Planning Inspectorate will take place at The Council Chamber, Brighton Town Hall, Bartholomew Square, Brighton BN1 1JA over 4 days. If you want to speak at the inquiry you need to be there at the start of the inquiry to lodge your request to speak. Anyone can drop in to see how the inquiry is going at any time.

Councillor Lee Wares who vociferously savaged the planning application at the Planning Committee meeting in January said, "It remains vitally important that as many residents as possible come and speak to the inspector and make their points."

Councillor Geoffrey Theobald said "I do think that it is important that a good number of residents attend to follow the proceedings and by being there show the concern of the village and in addition that some residents also request to speak...These will be a vital few days for our Patcham Community and if we want to save the village from irreparable harm then as many residents as possible should try to attend as much of the proceedings as they can to show that we all care about the future of Patcham. We need to show our support for the City Council whose Planning Committee quite rightly unanimously dismissed this highly inappropriate planning application." Typically, the Inspector announces their decision 10 weeks after the inquiry so we should know the outcome by late August 2017.

The Council will argue at the inquiry that planning application should be turned down because: The development has not adequately taken the flood risk into account, and it would add vulnerable people to an area with a significant history of groundwater flooding The development is considered to detract from the character and appearance of the street scene It has not been demonstrated that the future occupants of the development would be protected from sources of noise on the site such as the sub-station, kitchen and plant rooms The developer has not committed to paying the requested developer financial contributions. We hope as many as people as possible can make it to the Town Hall at 10am on 13 June.

www.protectpatcham.co.uk alistair.elliott1@ntlworld.com