Plans for council to absorb towns sparks anger

Plans for Brighton & Hove City Council (BHCC) to take over parts of East Sussex have sparked a furious reaction from some politicians.

The Green Party's Zoe Nicholson, leader of Lewes District Council (LDC), says BHCC intends to take over parts of her council's area, including east Saltdean, Peacehaven, Telscombe, Newhaven and possibly Kingston.

She added: "The message that I got was that they've got a housing crisis in Brighton in the city and they're not meeting their government's targets and they see this place and part of this district as a place in which they can build tens of thousands of houses."

BHCC and East Sussex County Council have been contacted for a comment.

Nicholson said she was "furious" there had not been a consultation with LDC.

"I can absolutely assure residents that we will make sure that their voice is heard and that I will be doing everything I can to stand up against this empire building activity on behalf of BHCC," she told BBC Radio Sussex.

Labour's Christine Robinson, LDC's deputy leader, said: "We will vigorously resist any attempts to annex our communities against the will of residents.

"We are here to serve the people of Lewes district, and we will not allow our green spaces to become a backdoor solution to Brighton's housing crisis."

James MacCleary, Lewes' Liberal Democrat MP and LDC councillor for Newhaven South, said he did not think people in his ward wanted to be absorbed by Brighton.

"It's a large city with its own priorities and its own problems," he explained.

The councillor said some people also had concerns that the town would become an after thought for BHCC.

"If we're just hacked onto the end of Brighton I think we all know that we'd just fall off the end and be forgotten about and neglected," Mr MacCleary added.

The BBC understands a public consultation on the plans will be launched only for Brighton and Hove residents on 25 July, but LDC also plans to start its own consultation.

A general consultation on local government reorganisation in Sussex ended in April.

Under the plans, all 12 of the boroughs and district councils and East and West Sussex county councils would be scrapped.

An elected mayor would take on responsibility for strategic decisions on the economy, transport and infrastructure and new unitary authorities would be created to run all of the day-to-day services.

Sussex has until 25 September to submit a final local government reorganisation plan to the government.

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