What is wrong with these people? Brighton & Hove has the opportunity, through great planning applications and proposals, to create an architectural heritage as strong as that bequithed to us by the Regency period architecture and as interesting.
In today’s news:
Conservationists are objecting to architect Frank Gehry’s plans for a £290 million seafront development.
Members of the South Downs Joint Committee, which looks after the countryside, said the tower blocks proposed for the King Alfred Centre in Kingsway, Hove, would spoil views for people exploring the South Downs when they looked out towards the sea.
Source: The Evening Argus
Let me make this quite clear: The South Downs are miles from the King Alfred and the view will quite simply not be damaged in any way at all. These people are worse than NIMBYs they are, to coin a phrase coined by a great chap at work NEIMBYs - “Not Even In My Back Yard”!
January 10th, 2006 at 9:56 pm
Or NEYBYs…Not even in your backyard…
I’m not sure what to think about the new development (it sounds kind of barmy, but I haven’t seen a model yet), but to object to it because of the view from the Downs??? Everyone knows that the best views from the Downs look north or east or west, anyway. Brighton looks like an over-developed pit, anyway, from up there.
By the way, thanks for the link you sent.
January 10th, 2006 at 9:58 pm
No problem RE: the link, hope it helps.
Funny you should mention the view north, that’s the banner image!
January 10th, 2006 at 10:02 pm
My only slight concern about King Alfred is that the buildings around its base may be quite large - hopefully they won’t obscure the view of the brave architectural design.
I was disappointed that Boles and Hove Conservatives went so overboard with opposition to it. That area is the least cultural of all Hove seafront and the idea of a world-famous building with style is something that should not be turned down…
January 10th, 2006 at 10:03 pm
When I look north from the top of the Downs, I know I am looking at England. It’s an incredible feeling. (I’m trying to inculcate it in my daughter, too, give her some patriotic fervor.)
I owe a great debt to the Gorse Fox for taking me out on some of his outings.
January 11th, 2006 at 8:05 pm
This is a disappointment. As you say, that area is currently an eyesore and so I can’t see why anybody would want to reject the new proposals.
If Brighton had tried to keep to it’s pre-war holiday style we would be as dead as Eastbourne. But we adapted and changed with the times making us still the major seaside destination for young people in the South.
Oh, and its been three months since I last went up to Devil’s Dyke. I need to remedy this quickly.
January 11th, 2006 at 8:32 pm
Where were these “conservationists” when the tower blocks were going up anyway?
January 12th, 2006 at 8:27 am
Or when they placed the North Street Car Park across a road?