Small Eastbourne homes on old photographic studio approved

On Monday (June 12), Eastbourne Borough Council’s planning committee approved proposals to build five two-bedroom houses in place of a former photography studio, known as Lion Works, to the rear of Sidley Road.

The proposals had attracted objections from a number of local residents, who argued the houses would be an overdevelopment of the site and result in a loss of privacy to those living nearby.

Some of the residents concerns were voiced at the meeting by ward councillor Christina Ewbank (Lib Dem), who said: “How are we going to put two-bedroom houses there? How are people going to be able to put their clothes away? There isn’t going to be space. This is quite shocking that we are actually thinking about putting families into these tiny spaces.

“I think the access road is too small for the coming and going if we’ve got three people in each house [and] the size of the rooms, with a lack of space for personal belongings, is not good for mental health.

“I think the pressure on utilities will be excessive and this kind of overdevelopment can only be deleterious on the mental health on all those living in the houses and all those subjected to being squashed into such a small space around the houses as well, not to mention the problems with flooding with the sea levels rising.”

Concerns were also raised about the development having no off-street car parking, although the committee heard the scheme is intended to be ‘car free’.

The majority of the committee did not share the resident’s concerns, however.

Shortly before proposing approval, Cllr Amanda Morris (Lib Dem) said: “I actually quite like this. It’s in the middle of town, so there’s buses, there’s trains. I think they’ve done it very well in the way it is very similar to the building that is already on the site.”

She added: “We need new houses, we need more houses. I am very, very much pro-small living and there are other people that like small living, not everybody wants to live in a big house. Some people actually want to live in a small house; there’s less cleaning.

“I see the issues that the residents have, but we need houses and I just think this is a good area to put them in.”

During debate, the committee also heard about a ‘fall-back position’ available to the developer should planning permission not be granted. Should this happen, the developer would be able to convert the existing building into a residential property using only permitted development rights.

Officers said this would be less desirable than the approved scheme, which they described as ‘well designed”.

Each of the proposed houses are expected to be two-storeys tall and arranged in a terrace. The application had initially been for six houses, but these plans were revised down to five during the planning process.

For further information on the proposals see application reference 220339 on the Eastbourne Borough Council website.