Planning permission secured for student halls for Brighton’s Vogue Gyratory

A 51-room hall of residence for students near the Vogue Gyratory in Brighton has received planning permission.

Granted by the council’s planning committee, the permission allows the build of a three-to-four storey building on the current site of a car wash adjacent to the bottom of Gladstone Place.

The land is privately owned and the planning application was submitted from a private student housing company. It is not a council development.

The application also showcases the area’s need to improve higher education provision and increase the supply of purpose-built student accommodation.

Sites such as this need to have good sustainable transport links to existing university teaching buildings.

As part of an agreement with planning officers, the developers are required to contribute £62k to improve recreation facilities locally, and nearly £12k to help improve local sustainable transport.

This planning condition means developers must sign an agreement with an existing educational establishment to take its students. A management plan that controls aspects such as noise and behaviour will also have to be agreed with the council.

Cllr Julie Cattell, planning committee chair, said: “The council is well aware of concerns over the impact of students. There is strong demand for student homes because education is one of our major industries. So students will either live in halls or they will live in houses.

“The policy is to encourage development of purpose-built accommodation in suitable areas – one of which is named in the draft city plan as the Lewes Road corridor.

“They are also actively managed in a way which shared houses are not, helping reduce potential problems locally.”

Since 2013, the council has had special planning powers in five council wards preventing new shared homes – including those used students - being set up where many already exist. This means new shared homes cannot be established where more than 10% of properties within 50 metres of the application address are already shared.

All shared homes also need a council licence, regardless how long ago they were set up.

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