YOUR OBJECTIONS ARE NEEDED!
We need to have our say again
The Royal Mail want to relocate two delivery offices based in Brighton and Hove to Patcham Court Farm located on Vale Avenue in Patcham Village.
The Royal Mail conveniently submitted this Planning Application (BH2022/02232) while most people are busy on their Summer Holidays!
Please take five minutes to object
THE CONSULTATION PERIOD
Here are just some of the reasons that the planning application should be objected on.
- The public consultation run by Royal Mail in January 2022 was inadequate. Many residents of Patcham are digitally excluded and were unable to attend the two public webinars.
Many residents spoken to at the beginning of the Patcham Against Royal Mail campaign were unaware these plans were in motion or that a public consulation had taken place.
This is reflected in the poor attendance of the two public webinars with 96 attendees. - The two webinars were run in a closed format, questions were typed into a chat box and then Royal Mail decided whether to answer these or ignore them. Attendees have voiced their concern in the one sided manner in which this was done.
- Royal Mail are adamant that they have gone above and beyond the requirements for a public consultation in their response to a resident. Read their response here.
- The Royal Mail submitted their planning application at the start of the holiday season (August 2022) when many residents are either away or busy with their kids during the school holidays. For a major development and planning decision this is bad practice. They are repeating this activity by again beginning the shorter 3 week consultation towards the end of July 2023.
- There were no Statutory Planning Notices erected on the site, when queried with the council and asked where they are the council officers came and erected these on the 5th August. This triggered an extension of the Statutory Public Consultation Period.
- The council planning team did not upload the National Highways holding objection that was submitted in May 2023 and it only appeared on the planning portal in early July 2023.
- Council Leader Phelim McCafferty stated in person to a resident that there was no legal obligation to erect planning notices. This is not true. The change of use from B1 to B8 Major Development specifies that notices should be in place.
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As per reports such as the "Policy & Resources Committee Agenda" the Council and Royal Mail have been in discussion to purchase the Patcham Court Farm site for a new sorting office, and sell the two sorting office sites in Brighton and Hove to the council for housing since atleast 2018.
Their agenda recommends the sale of Patcham Court Farm to the Royal Mail ahead of the securing of the two sorting office sites or planning being granted for the housing on these. - The council home next to the site was renovated in 2018 after the last tenant left. The home was never let to a new tenant. The home has stood empty and unused for nearly 5 years when someone in need of a council home could have lived there.
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The public have three weeks to read, understand and evaluate a very large number of documents that form this application and add their comments. The transport plan alone is over 600 pages.
- The Royal Mail are misleading the public with their leaflet "Royal Mail Community Newsletter - Update July 2023"
The following inaccuracies exist:
Royal Mail's Leaflet Says... | Patcham Residents Say... |
|---|---|
"The proposed site, formally known as Patcham Court Farm" | Why are they removing the name of the place? |
"It has been vacant for over 25 years" | The site has been rented by the council to Sector Fencing since the 1990's, both Brighton & Hove Council and Royal Mail know they are there. |
"A single storey building" | The building is two storeys as shown by plans for the lower and upper floors. |
"We have moved the vehicle access point to the Vale Avenue/A27 approach road at the south west of the site {}. This has been agreed in consultation with National Highways and the council's highway department" | This statement references the pre-consultation where the exit change was agreed before the initial planning application. |
"All sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) are to be lined with an impermeable membrane to prevent infiltration. [] All measures have been approved by Southern Water. | Again this is a misleading statement, Southern Water have not approved the proposed development only the methods for this system |
"reduce HGV movements from 25 per day to 14 per day" | They do not mention that they are substantially increasing the size of the vehicles and that these will be articulated lorries. |
"Regenerate a vacant site" mentioned on the back cover | Again this site is not vacant and is in use by a local business |
The satellite photograph of the site is missing the 4 new build homes on Vale Avenue adjacent to the site. | These homes are materially important to the application as they are under-representing the residential scale of the area. |
"Have a question or comment on our proposals? Email us at royalmailpatcham@secnewgate.co.uk or use FREEPOST Royal Mail Patcham" | The leaflet never mentions there is a planning application that the public should comment on. Residents sending comments to Royal Mail will assume they are having their voices heard but the opposite is true. |