Date of meeting: 18 July 2024

A period of up to fifteen minutes shall be allowed at each meeting of the Executive

for the hearing of Deputations from members of the public.

Notification of one Deputation has been received. The spokesperson is entitled to speak for 5 minutes.

1) Deputation: King Alfred Leisure Facility

I am Anne Nickolson, Chairperson of Portslade Cricket Club, Benfield Valley Sports Field, Portslade and I am submitting this deputation on behalf of the cricket club, its committee and its members against the proposal to relocate the current King Alfred Leisure Facility to Benfield Valley. We have played cricket in Portslade since it was founded in 1876 and moved to Benfield in early 1990’s as part of the Sainsbury Superstore development. We first heard about the proposal to relocate the King Alfred to Benfield when the scheme went public late in 2023 although discussions had been going on long before to which we were not party to.

The initial consultation process was poor and following intervention from the cricket club was extended more fully and comprehensively to allow more representation from the Portslade community. The questionnaire was biassed very much in favour of the relocation of the King Alfred site.

If the cricket club has to move, a new site has to be provided with a minimum requirement of equal in quality and standard to what is currently in place. A site has been identified to which we had no involvement. A site search was carried out by officers from the City Council and Sussex Cricket Foundation to which we had no consultation and involvement in. A new site has been identified but this provides a lesser facility than we have and has not taken into consideration surrounding uses. It was provided as a line on a plan without any site inspection. The proposal to relocate the King Alfred to Benfield Valley is contrary to many policies contained within the approved Development Plan for the city, namely;

Strategic Objective 15 - Protect and enhance the quality and quantity of parks and green spaces, formal and informal, improving their interconnectivity;

SA1 The Seafront, King Alfred/RNR Sites - Secure the redevelopment of the King Alfred/RNR site to ensure the replacement of new indoor public wet and dry sports facilities which provide for the Hove communities…

Citywide Policies CP16 Open Space -...planning permission resulting in the loss of open space will only be granted where…b) the site is not part of a playing field (current or proposed) and the loss is necessary to bring about significant and demonstrable long term enhancement to the cities public open space.

Supported by:

Anne Nickolson (Lead Spokesperson)

Shaun Chambers

Andy Glover

Roger Walsgrove

Alfie Gent