Member Article

Brighton & Hove City Council to protect listed buildings with new partnership

Brighton & Hove City Council is leading the way with a new agreement with the University of Sussex and English Heritage to protect the university’s unique 1960s listed buildings and streamline the planning process.

The council, the university and English Heritage are set to sign up to a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement, which will be the second such agreement in the country - and the first involving a university.

The University of Sussex was the first of a new wave of universities created in the early 1960s.

The early buildings were designed by the celebrated architect, Sir Basil Spence, and include one Grade l and seven Grade II listed buildings.

The agreement will mean that Listed Building Consent for general or repeated work would be granted without the need for the university to individually apply for consent – cutting red tape and saving time and money.

This includes work to repair or replace the external fabric of buildings, internal fixtures and finishes to upgrade teaching facilities and works to improve safety and accessibility.

The university has carried out best practice for such works for many years and contributed to the current guidelines for listed buildings on the campus. It currently makes several listed building consent applications every year.

The agreement would set conditions to ensure that work is carried out consistently using materials in keeping with buildings.

A draft Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement was agreed by the council’s Economic Development and Culture committee in January and since then has been subject to public consultation.

At a meeting on March 12 the committee will be recommended to give final approval for the agreement – if agreed it will be the second in the country.*

Councillor Geoffrey Bowden, chair of the Economic Development and Culture Committee, said: “The council and the University have built up a considerable amount of expertise about these famous buildings over the years which we now want to put to good use to guide future work.

“The proposed Heritage Partnership Agreement will be a great way of pooling resources and it will enable the University of Sussex to plan strategically for work that will have automatic consent. It will save having to make separate applications to the planning authority for minor works and it will save resources at the council, too.”

Dr Andy Brown, Planning and Conservation Director for English Heritage in the South East, said: “This Agreement is a big step forward and clears the way for a schedule of on-going works to be drawn up by Sussex University.

“The LBHPA removes the ‘them and us’ situation and gives the comfort of a team working towards the same goal to protect the nation’s heritage for future generations to appreciate and enjoy.”

The proposed agreement will run for 10 years, subject to periodic review.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .