• Key dates:  Consultation on City Plan Part 2 runs from Monday 7 September to Friday 30 October

• Document proposes building on 16 green ‘urban fringe’ sites across Brighton & Hove

• Conservatives say statistics show housing targets could easily be met by brownfield development listed in plan and without building on urban fringe

Have your say on City Plan Part 2 - Complete the Consultation

Conservative Group Spokesperson on Tourism, Equalities, Communities and Culture Robert Nemeth has said that the opening of the formal consultation process for City Plan Part 2 should be a call to action for City residents that want to save Brighton & Hove’s green spaces from development.

16 ‘urban fringe’ green spaces are listed for development in section H2 of the City Plan Part 2, including many well-known and much-loved green spaces such as Benfield Valley; Whitehawk Hill; Horsdean Recreation Ground and Coldean green land.  A full list of the sites can be found in table 8, page 178 of the plan.

The formal consultation process, which will run to Friday 30 October 2020, follows a special council meeting on 23 April where Labour and the Greens voted in favour of the development plan, with the Conservatives voting against.

Councillor Nemeth said that it was vital for residents to have their say as this was the last chance to stop the plan going through.

“Thousands of people have already signed petitions against Brighton & Hove’s City Plan Part 2 and our Conservative Councillors have been working hard, helping to organise local petitions and stand up for residents across the City that want to defend their green spaces.

“Now we need even more people to get involved during the next two months so that we can send a clear message to the Council when it comes to a final vote on this Plan that we want to see section H2 deleted from the City Plan and Brighton and Hove’s green land retained.

“Let us be clear, there is absolutely no need whatsoever to build on precious green land in the City.

“The statistics clearly and unequivocally show this.

“The City Plan Part 2 document is required to meet a minimum housing target for the City of 13,200 additional homes.

“Deleting the greenfield urban fringe sites from City Plan (Section H2) and developing only on brownfield sites listed in the plan would still leave Brighton & Hove City Council over 1900 homes above the minimum target.

“There is therefore absolutely no need to build on our precious green land” he said.

Councillor Nemeth said since the initial vote on City Plan Part 2 on April it should have become clear to Labour and the Greens that communities valued their green spaces more than ever before.

“Labour and the Greens joined forces to vote this plan through in April, but I now urge them to reflect and take this opportunity to change their position.

“Green spaces are more popular than ever across Brighton & Hove and people just cannot understand why Labour and the Greens want to build on them.

“Local community groups are not buying Labour and the Greens’ lines to them that they must build on the urban fringe to meet their housing targets when people can see the city’s current housing figures in black and white for themselves.

“Now we must encourage as many people as possible get involved during the consultation process – it could be the last chance to save some iconic Brighton green land” he said.

Councillor Nemeth urged interested residents to complete the consultation here and sign the petition to delete section H2 from the City Plan Part 2.

ENDS.