A Planning Disaster, the story to date!

July 2001: Planning consent was granted for a nightclub with flats above within the original building.

November 2004: Consent was granted to add a new top floor with more flats. No change to the front of the old building was proposed.

During 2005, work commenced and before long the entire building was torn down and a new building appeared, much bigger and quite different to the old!

March 2006: A retrospective application to demolish was REFUSED!

Throughout 2006, work continued without planning consent. The owner, Mr Nikhah-Eshgi, seemed to think he could do exactly what he wanted! EBRA had other ideas!

August 2006: A new proposal was submitted now showing the building in its new and dreadful design, along with an application for demolition. Work continued.

November 2006: EBRA mounted its campaign. We ran a big feature on this web site and as a result, many objections were made by EBRA members.

January 2007:The objections made meant ensured the decision would go to the planning sub-committee, councillors including our own Paul Elgood would decide. A victory for the democratic process! We reported that building work was continuing, despite having no planning consent!

February 2006: We began to get feedback that refusal was on the cards, and that enforcement would follow. Work on site would have to stop. Members reported that someone was actually living in the building!

26 February 2007: Consent was REFUSED. This was the result we wanted. The awful building and its mess were still there, but now an acceptable scheme might result. But work continued!

21 April 2007: Brighton & Hove served notice that the illegal building must be pulled down and the site cleared. To owner has six months to comply or he could be taken to court. In the mean time negotiations towards an acceptable scheme continue.

Read what the Council said!

12 June 2007. The developer lodges an appeal against the planning decision. EBRA writes to the Planning Insepcorate in support of Brighton & Hove's decision.

The Future: The appeal has little chance of success. When the decision is announced, the developer will still have to offer an acceptable scheme, or demolish his awful building or face prosecution. When a new proposal emerges EBRA will be looking at it very carefully to ensure we get something acceptable. Then there will be an opportunity for us all to speak out again!

Read about our original campaign below.

Answer: When it is 5/6 Western Road! The Brighton & Hove City Council say a "big club" is one with a floor area over 150 square metres. And they will not allow a big club within 400 metres of another big club. But 5/6 Western Road and The Providence are both "big clubs" and maybe 50m apart! So how does that work?

Ah, say planning, 5/6/Western Road is really two clubs, because the basement and ground floor bars have separate entrances on Western Street!

Er, would you mind running that by us again?

There were a lot of them but here are just some:

"The development is inappropriate and fails to preserve or enhance the character and appearance of this part of the Brunswick Town Conservation Area by reason of its proportions, detailing of the front and rear elevations and materials."

"The proposed residential units fail to meet lifetime homes standards." In other words, no room to swing a cat!

"The proposed recessed emergency exit from the ground floor bar to the access ramp would provide opportunities for concealment, which would be potentially detrimental to the personal safety of the residential occupiers of the proposed development" Not to mention the rest of us!

No provision has been made for "the storage of refuse and bicycles! (What did Mr Nikkhah-Eshgi propose to do with the rubbish this boozer would generate, and his bicycle!)

Finally, Mr Nikkhah-Eshgi has failed to ensure that occupiers of his tiny flats would not be eligible for on-street parking permits.

The new 5/6 Western Road?

We think this is a totally unsuitable slab-fronted monstrosity that will be decorated with a few fake period touches. The back of the building as planned is just awful!

The basement will contain a large "club" offering loud music and cold lager even though there are enough bars within a few yards of here! The ground floor will have yet another bar and a fast-food takeaway, somewhere nice to hang out before the drinkers finally go home!

This will be yet another another drinking factory on an industrial scale. Oh, and yes, there will be some flats above, some of them so small as to be unsuitable for cat-swinging.

While Mr Nikkah-Eshgi has been conductiong his pointless war on the planning department the rest of us have had to put up with this mess for two years!

Two years, too long, too nasty, too many drinking holes.

But it's much worse than that!

It is an access ramp that blocks half the width of the passage leading to Farman Street. Imagine what this will be used for when the bar empties late at night! Or when the smoking ban starts. Of course the doors to the ramp will be an emergency exit and will never be opened on hot summer nights or when the bar closes.

The passage has been in use for access to Farman and Cross Streets for well over a hundred years. Will you want to use it late at night? How can a charming area be spoiled like this?

And at the rear...

This is the back of the building with a fine array of gas meters and pipes.

Wooden trunking is being installed to cover the pipes, that will look just fine in ten years time, won't it?

And check out the lift shaft rising over everything!. Just the thing for a Conservation Area!

Farman Street residents and passers-by will see this every day. And how will the lives of the residents of Farman Street be affected?

And this is pretty Farman Street, winners of the "Most Florally Attractive Street" section of the City in Bloom competition. The residents take great pride in their attractive little square and put a lot of work into making it a pleasant place to live and to visit.

EBRA thinks this was a well-deserved award, it shows just what can be done in an inner-city street. A big thank you from EBRA to Amy Rock and Barbara Montague. They have worked very hard to get Farman Street looking the way it does. Well done!

Unfortunately, Farman Street is just yards from the new "club".

5/6 Western Road used to be an Iranian restaurant, rather a good one we are told, with a takeaway attached and a small private "gentlemen's club" in the basement. The building was rather dilapidated but it was part of the original development of Brunswick Town.

In 2001, planning consent was given to convert the lower part to a takeaway, a bar and a basement nightclub, and to create additional flats above. Work started in early 2005. The building was gutted and the entire front and roof of the building was torn down and rebuilt in a brutal and unsympathetic style as you can see. You must have planning consent to pull a building down in a conservation area. No such consent was sought.

It may be that the original building was beyond saving, but what was done was the unauthorised demolition of an historic building and what was put up in its place is plain nasty. No wonder there is civic outrage!

The owner of this building, who created this mess, is Mr Nikkhah-Eshgi. Shame on you sir!

Then what happened?

When taken to task by the Council, he made a retrospective application for demolition, but it was refused on the grounds that "it fails to ensure the preservation of the character and appearance of the Brunswick Town conservation area". We can agree with that!

A second application (No BH2006/02727) is under consideration by the Council Planning department. The ugly building in our photos is what we will get if that application succeeds!

Fortunately Mr Nikkhah-Eshgi is the only one who likes his building and he won't get his way by breaking the law!

The application, including plans of the building, are on the Council's planning website. For copyright reasons we cannot publish them here but you can view and download them by clicking the link below. click on "I accept" then "continue" then enter the application number which you can cut and paste from here: BH2006/02727.

View details of the planning application

It makes worrisome reading. A block of flats with an industrial drinking hole below will replace what was once a building of character. Ouch!

This is "development creep" at its worst. An old building is torn down and we can't get it back. A useful restaurant with an "old pals" club in the basement is replaced by a boozing factory on two floors. When Mr Nikhah-Eshgi finally opens his club his next logical step will be to apply for a late, late license. Make no mistake about that! This will change the area and affect the lives of people who live here.

EBRA is also very concerned about what has been done to the Farman Street passage. How can part of our heritage be turned into an unpleasant alley? We know that planning is concerned about the character of our area. This unauthorized redevelopment is an assault on the pleasant aspect of East Brunswick and the quality of life of those in the vicinity, Farman Street in particular. We hope planning can see what is happening!

EBRA is worried, we should all be worried!

The decision to allow a "club" on two floors was taken in 2002. The present application was registered on 18 August 2006 and no further objections will be considered. A decision is due on 21 February.