Albion can build £1m car park at old Brighton school

Brighton and Hove Albion have been granted permission to build a car park on the site of the old Falmer High School.

The club will be able to use the 680-space car park up to 50 times a year for four years for football matches and other events.

The Bridge Community Education Centre will be rehoused at one end of the car park next to the new Brighton Aldridge Community Academy.

And the club has been told that it must protect a beech tree on the site.

Permission was granted to demolish the old Falmer High School building earlier this month by Brighton and Hove City Council officers under delegated powers.

Spaces in the £1 million car park would be pre-booked by fans who would come and go through the narrow bridge under the Brighton to Lewes railway line.

Stewards would be deployed and the council planning committee was told that Lucraft Road, the road into the car park, was a private road.

Councillor Leigh Farrow, who represents Moulsecoomb and Bevendean, said that he had concerns about possible groundwater pollution.

A report to councillors said: “There is a need for the proposed parking.”

The need would be greater if the extra seating planned for the Amex was approved.

The report also said: “The proposal would not harm the setting of the national park and subject to conditions would not have an adverse impact on the local highway network, neighbouring amenity, ecology or water quality.”

The planning committee unanimously approved the plans subject to 25 conditions.