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Subject: |
Items referred from 22 October Council meeting – Deputations. |
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Date of Meeting: |
3 December 2020 |
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Report of: |
Executive Lead Officer for Strategy, Governance & Law |
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Contact Officer: |
Name: |
Mark Wall |
Tel: |
01273 291006 |
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E-mail: |
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Wards Affected: |
Various |
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FOR GENERAL RELEASE
1. SUMMARY AND POLICY CONTEXT:
1.1 To receive the following deputation referred from the Council meeting held on the 22 October 2020.
2. RECOMMENDATIONS:
2.1 That the Committee responds to the deputation either by noting it or where it is considered more appropriate, calls for an officer report on the matter which may give consideration to a range of options and writes to the deputation spokesperson setting out the committee’s decision(s).
3. CONTEXT / BACKGROUND INFORMATION
3.1 To receive the following deputation along with the extract from the council meeting and supporting information which is detailed in appendix 1:
(1) Deputation concerning the Gasworks Site in East Brighton
Spokesperson Marie Sansford
Supported by: Keeley Bignal, Stephen White, Pip Tyler and Michael Pegley
Ward affected: East Brighton
Action on Gasworks Housing Affordability, Safety and Transparency
AGHAST presentation to Full Council 22 October 2020
Brighton Gasworks Development recently in the pre-application process.
AGHAST is a group of concerned residents of East Brighton and we are here to urge you to robustly invoke health and safety protections in dealing with this application. Berkeley Homes/St William propose to build 600-700 flats on the gasworks in blocks of up to 15 storeys, placed around gas pipes and other installations still in use. These will require deep foundations in the areas currently occupied by huge, redundant gas tanks and ducts. Soil tests for the site are unavailable and testing will be done once permission is obtained.
Brownfield sites are seen as the way forward to provide more housing. However there is a material difference between developing railway sidings, goods yards etc, and developing gasworks, because of the toxicity of the latter. When Hove gasworks was developed in the 1980s-90’s, and a survey by Hove Borough Council detected untreatable toxins in the fabric of the site, it was deemed unsuitable for residential use. It now houses a Tesco and a large car park, which required shallower foundations than tower blocks.
In 2010 Ealing Council refused Berkeley’s application for planning permission on the Southall Gasworks on environmental and health grounds. When, as Mayor of London, Boris Johnson overturned that decision, residents soon experienced strong toxic smells of petroleum, and were exposed to naphthalene, a known carcinogen, at levels considered too high by PHE. There has been a higher than normal incidence of ill-health involving peoples’ airways, from breathing difficulties to terminal cancers. A legal case being built by local residents seeks a stop to the works on the grounds of `Nuisance’. In Brighton similar work on the gasworks site could spread pollution over a vast residential area in which are located ten schools and colleges, parks and playing fields, golf courses and our main hospital.
Berkeley now own more than 20 gasworks sites around the country. Worried residents have created a national pressure group, Gasworks Communities United, to demand the highest standards of safety and monitoring of these developments. The Campaign for Clean Air in Southall and Hayes (CASH) is supported by the local and national Green Party, which made a film viewable on the CASH website. We understand that Green Party colleagues from Ealing have approached the leadership of B&H Council with their concerns.
We urge the Council to take seriously its responsibility for the protection of Environment and Health under DM40/41 of City Plan 2 and propose that it should follow the example of Hove Borough Council and allow only limited development of this site. If nothing else, we call upon the Council to ensure that a thorough independent assessment of the site is carried out before planning permission is even considered., We request that the findings are shared with the community before any planning permission is granted.
3.2 An extract from the minutes of the Council meeting is detailed below:
Council
4.30pm 22 OCTOBER 2020
Virtual Meeting - TEAMS
MINUTES
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Present: Councillors Robins (Chair), Mears (Deputy Chair), Allcock, Appich, Atkinson, Bagaeen, Barnett, Bell, Brennan, Brown, Childs, Clare, Davis, Deane, Druitt, Ebel, Evans, Fishleigh, Fowler, Gibson, Grimshaw, Hamilton, Heley, Henry, Hill, Hills, Hugh-Jones, Janio, Knight, Lewry, Littman, Lloyd, Mac Cafferty, McNair, Miller, Moonan, Nemeth, Nield, O'Quinn, Osborne, Peltzer Dunn, Phillips, Pissaridou, Platts, Powell, Rainey, Shanks, Simson, C Theobald, Wares, West, Wilkinson and Williams. |
PART ONE
42 DEPUTATIONS FROM MEMBERS OF the PUBLIC
(1) GASWORKS SITE EAST BRIGHTON
spokesperson Marie Sansford
42.2 The Mayor welcomed Marie Sandford to the meeting and invited her to address the Council.
42.3 Ms. Sansford thanked the Mayor and referred to the deputation and outlined the group’s concerns over the possibility of the gas works site being redeveloped. She hoped that the council would give consideration to the request to having an independent assessment of the site and to ensure only limited redevelopment was permitted that would not result in any contamination being released or environmental and health risks for local residents and the local area.
42.4 Councillor Mac Cafferty thanked Ms Sanford for the deputation and stated that all planning applications must be determined in line with both local and national planning policy and guidance and relevant planning legislation. This included Environmental Impact Assessments and the impact of a development on human health. He was certain that the city council would scrutinise the information as part of the planning application process and any approval would be subject to stringent planning conditions to address land contamination. He noted that remediation was highly technical, regulated and was licensed and overseen by the Health and Safety Executive. He was sure that if these standards could not be met, then works on the site could not proceed.
42.5 The Mayor thanked Ms. Sansford for joining the meeting and noted that the deputation would be referred to the Policy & Resources Committee for consideration. The persons forming the deputation would be invited to attend the meeting and would be informed subsequently of any action to be taken or proposed in relation to the matter set out in the deputation.