king alfred development

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King Alfred development and history of the previous scheme

The King Alfred 'Development Agreement' the Council had with Karis has now expired. The Agreement required the Developer, Karis King Alfred Developments, to issue a 'Vacant Possession Notice' to the Council on or before midnight on 8th November 2008.  The Council did not receive this 'Notice' nor did it receive a formal request for an extension to the above date.  The Agreement which was to have delivered a new sports centre, 751 flats and a new public realm will now no longer be delivered. 

The Council has committed to keeping the King Alfred Leisure Centre open to the public. A report went to the Council Cabinet on 20th November 2008 which outlined the need to undertake urgent works to the King Alfred building in order to keep it open. It also confirmed the Council's intention to take stock of the current position and explore alternatives for the site in the coming months. Progress with these discussions will be the subject of future reports to Cabinet and can be viewed on the Council's website.

Further details of the previous scheme and the development history are available below. 

Planning background

A planning application for the King Alfred/RNR site in Hove was considered by the Planning Applications Sub Committee on 23 March 2007. The committee resolved that it was minded to grant the application subject to a Section 106 planning obligation and the application not being 'called in' by the Secretary of State.

On18 May 2007, the Government Office for the South East (GOSE) having "carefully considered all the matters raised about [the] application" concluded that there was no justifiable reason for intervention by the Secretary of State. 

At a subsequent meeting of the Planning Applications Sub Committee on 11 July 2007, the committee approved the final terms of the Section 106 Agreement and a Planning Permission was issued to the developer, Karis ING, on 12 July 2007.

The planning application for the development is available to view - see the King Alfred pages in our planning section for further details.

• what are the plans?
• who are Karis ING?
• who are the Architects?
• funding and rationale  
• planning and design  
• housing  
• impact on the city  
• effect on the sports centre

Further information is also available on Karis' King Alfred website at www.thekingalfred.org

What are the plans?

The new scheme will replace the existing King Alfred sports centre with a larger high quality facility.   It will include:

•  a main pool of 25m in length, with eight lanes instead of the current six, and with a moveable floor.  
• a leisure pool designed to be fun and challenging for children under eight years old
• a 20m teaching pool with moveable floor
• the sports hall and gym facilities will be larger than at present - there will be an eight badminton court sports hall suitable for a range of sports, including five-a-side football, badminton and volleyball
• a multi-purpose sports hall suitable for table tennis, martial arts, fencing, under-five sessions and other events
• dry and wet changing facilities
• a cafe
• a children's soft play area for under-eights
• a creche for under-fives
• a meeting room for training and community events.
• a health and fitness suite including:
• gym
• workout studio
• sauna
• steam room
• consultation rooms for sports injuries, massage and complementary treatments
• showers and a relaxation area

The sports centre will be fully accessible to people with disabilities.

Developers have set aside £2.5m for an indoor bowls centre, to be built elsewhere in Hove.  There will also be 751 flats on the site, 475 market units and 276 affordable units aimed at local people on the council waiting list or key workers. 10% of the affordable homes are accessible for disabled users.

The scheme also includes a police office, GP surgery and public toilets as well as cafes, restaurants and public spaces.  The public realm will be designed to offer attractive usable space for the whole community both day and night.

Who are Karis/ING?

This is a consortium of local developer, Karis, and the property arm of the Dutch bank ING, one of the largest property developers in the world. ING believe that by melding their finance and development expertise with local developers with local knowledge they achieve the best of both worlds. ING have worked with some of the world's top architects including Norman Foster, Renzo Piano and Frank Gehry. They previously worked with Gehry on the "Dancing Building" in Prague Dancing Building.

What about the architects?

Frank Gehry.   Frank Gehry is one of the world's best known and admired architects. The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is probably his most famous building and has contributed much to the regeneration of that city. His architecture has been described as inventive and eccentric and coming close to sculpture. Based in Santa Monica, California, Gehry has produced public and private buildings in Europe, Asia and North America. Apart from a small cancer centre in Scotland, Maggies Centre he has not built anything in the UK.

CZWG architects.  CZWG (Piers Gough is the "G") was formed in 1975 and have produced a range of projects for both public and private clients. These include the Cascades building in London's Docklands and the Green Bridge as part of a regenerated Mile End Park. Piers Gough has presented a TV series on architecure and, among other things, is a commissioner of English Heritage.

HOK Sport.  HOK is the world's largest sports architectural practice.  They were recently successful in their bid to design the stadium for the London Olympics in 2012. Their London office designs include the Cardiff Millennium Stadium, the new  Wembley Stadium and the Commonwealth Stadium in Manchester.

Antony Gormley.  Antony Gormley is one of Britain's best known artists. He has created some of the most ambitious and recognisable works of the last twenty years, including Field, the Angel of the North and Quantum Cloud. An exhibition of his work at The Hayward Gallery in London is currently drawing huge crowds.

Funding and rationale

Why is this the only way to fund a new sports centre?
The present King Alfred is the council's leading indoor sports centre. It is simply not up to the standard required for a city of our size. The council does not have the money to build a new £45m centre and no money is available from the Sports Lottery. This approach provides the city with not only a brand new sports centre but in addition much needed affordable housing, both within  a landmark design.

Why can't the whole enabling development or the affordable housing be built somewhere else?
Three reasons. First, it is government and council policy to make the best use of the small number of brownfield sites which become available in the city. A sports centre alone would not do this. Second, the council does not have suitable alternative sites available. Third, it is the council's policy to ensure that new developments provide a mix of private (for sale) housing and affordable  (for rent or shared ownership) housing through a Housing Association, in this case, Southern Housing Group.

Why is so much housing required?
The developer has to pay to build all of the housing and generate enough profit to pay for the building of the sports centre. Also, this is a large brownfield site and if it is developed it is important that its full potential is maximised.

Will the council get a share of the profits?
If there is an increase in property prices compared with construction costs, the council will get 50% of any profits over and above the agreed developer's profit.

Planning and design

King Alfred planning application

What is the planning context?

This is set out in the King Alfred RNR : Planning  Brief for the site adopted by the council in November 2002 SPG10 (PDF.392kb).

Won't this set a precedent for other development on the Hove seafront?
No, as this is already a developed site. What these proposals do is make best use of a brownfield site. The council has very strict planning policies which protect the open spaces on the seafront.

What about the Tall Buildings Policy?
The area of the King Alfred has been identified as potentially suitable for tall buildings, subject to meeting the requirements of a range of criteria set out in the Tall Buildings Supplementary Planning Guidance SPG15 [PDF 428kb]

Will enough parking be provided for the housing and the sports centre?
The Karis/ING scheme provides parking for the sports centre and housing. There is a large basement at the King Alfred which means this parking can be provided underground. The developer is providing for a car club to reduce the number of residents choosing to own a car.

Won't this generate lots of traffic?
A full transport assessment was prepared as part of the Planning Application.  See documents submitted.

What arrangements are there for public transport?   A Travel Plan Co-ordinator will be appointed to promote sustainable tansport with new occupiers and users of the sports centre.  If the proposed new rapid transport system continues to get the go-ahead, it will provide a transport link to the east of the city (Marina and Black Rock) via Brighton Station, and to the west of the city (western sea front and King Alfred).  A very regular and well used bus service operates along Church Road in Hove, a five minute walk from the King Alfred.  It is also proposed to extend the 24 hour number 7 bus route.  (Please see pages 135 to 142 of the Planning Report which gives comprehensive information about transport issues in relation to the King Alfred).

Housing

Who will get the affordable housing?
The affordable housing will be managed by a housing association (Southern Housing Group) and will make a big contribution to meeting the city's housing need. Sixty per cent of the affordable flats will be for keyworker housing or shared ownership (part rent/part buy), many of which will go to keyworkers. The remainder will be for rent, mostly to single people and couples. 10% of the flats will be designed for wheelchair users.

Impact on the city

Will the scheme provide more jobs?
Over 700 construction jobs will be created during the 5 year construction period.  Jobs in housing, retail, and leisure management will also be created in the longer term.  

What about tourism?
Brighton and Hove is a city which relies more heavily on tourism than many others.  There is a significant and ever increasing competition for visitor expenditure. If the city fails to provide substantial new reasons for visitors to come, it cannot sustain the current level of employment in the sector and will see lower investment, declining quality and increasing business failure. 

A Gehry building will increase awareness of the city as a destination and all that is has to offer, and it will provide another symbolic icon for the city.  It is anticipated that it will increase leisure visitors, business visitors, particularly conference and meeting delegates and generate employment for local people.

Effect on the sports centre

What guarantee is there that once the centre is closed it will ever open again? There are various obligations in place, negotated by the city council, which place constraints on the developer to ensure, as far as possible, that this situation does not occur.

Won't a new sports centre have higher prices/cost more to run?
No. Apart from inflation, we have made no assumption of increased prices. We have carried out a study which shows that a new centre will reduce the council subsidy by at least £100,000 a year and attract 70-75% more users. The subsidy per user would be halved.

Will the centre continue to be managed by the council?
No decision has been made about how the centre will be managed in future. The options are for the council to run it as an in-house operation or for a trust or private leisure management partner to run the centre (as with the Prince Regent and Moulescoomb Leisure Centre). Different management options have different costs and benefits.

When will the new development be completed? The current target date for opening of the new sports centre is Spring 2012. The sports centre will open first and the remainder of the site, including the housing and retail units, will become available in phases throughout 2013.

If you would like further information please contact the Major Projects Team on mpt@brighton-hove.gov.uk

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