Health trust signs up for Hove businessman’s King Alfred project

A health trust has joined forces with a Hove businessman who plans to build a combined arts and leisure centre and housing on the site of the King Alfred.

The Trust for Futurehealth has agreed to work with insurance company boss Rob Starr who is behind a project called The Lyrics for the Hove seafront site.

Futurehealth is run by two Brighton and Hove GPs, Sarah Andersen and Laura Marshall-Andrews.

The two NHS general practitioners (GPs) want to offer something different compared with traditional doctors’ surgeries.

Dr Andersen said: “The combination of arts, leisure and health at this site will be something completely new for Brighton and Hove but it is based on the city’s spa heritage and creative spirit.

“We want to create an NHS GP environment that is about health rather than disease and ability rather than disability.

Rob Starr

“What better than to prescribe exercise when the pool is right next door?”

Mr Starr, who runs Seico Insurance, said: “Futurehealth was the missing link in our bid for the King Alfred site.

“We want to provide the public with a new leisure centre with a great pool but we also want to focus on the arts, on education and on wellbeing.

“Futurehealth is an NHS service that fits perfectly with our vision for a vibrant, creative and healthy seafront for Hove.”

The Lyrics and Futurehealth are holding their first joint meeting for stakeholders on Tuesday 14 May at the Rotunda Café in Brighton.

The day after (Wednesday 15 May) the King Alfred Project Board, set up by Brighton and Hove City Council, will also be meeting.

The board is led by Green councillor Geoffrey Bowden and Labour councillor Warren Morgan, widely expected to become his party’s leader in Brighton and Hove on Tuesday.

It also includes Conservative councillor Andrew Wealls, who represents the Central Hove ward which includes the 4.3-acre King Alfred site.

Other members include Tony Mernagh, chief executive of the Brighton and Hove Economic Partnership, and the council’s planning chief Martin Randall.

On Friday 24 May the Conservative MP for Hove Mike Weatherley will host a public meeting about the future of the King Alfred Leisure Centre.

The meeting is due to take place at Hove Town Hall, starting at 2pm.

He said: “Brighton and Hove desperately needs a new first-class leisure centre to replace the crumbling King Alfred and I want to hear directly from residents what they want from this new multimillion-pound facility.

“For too long, local people have had to put up with inadequate facilities that are certainly not fit for the 21st century.

“I want a state of the art leisure centre that will be the envy of local authorities from around the country.”