Brighton & Hove's REGENCY Magazine

Royal Alex Site Update

REGENCY — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 11:27:38 +0000

Taylor Wimpey has now put forward two new planning applications for the former Royal Alexandra children’s hospital building and site on Dyke Road. One involves complete demolition of all the buildings on the site, to be replaced by a new block of 137 flats, 40% of them affordable, and a large (650 sq.m.) new GP surgery to accommodate a vastly expanded Victoria Road practice when it leaves its current premises. This proposal also includes a large new pharmacy on the site, even though there are long-established pharmacies at Seven Dials, less than five minutes’ walk away. The other proposal involves retaining and converting the Royal Alex building, remodelling the front facade, restoring the original roof line and retaining the 1913s balconies. All the other buildings on the site, regrettably including the listable villa on Dyke Road, would be demolished. This would produce 121 flats, and just under 15 per cent affordable housing, and no GP surgery.

“By submitting two parallel planning applications, Taylor Wimpey is creating a lot of unnecessary confusion,” says Mick Hamer, who chairs the Montpelier and Clifton Hill Association. “If you want to save the Alex you should support the conversion option (BH2010/03379) and object to both the demolition planning application (BH2010/03324) and the associated application for consent to demolish the main building (BH2010/03325).”

The GPs at the Victoria Road surgery have for the last few years claimed that there are no suitable alternative sites for a new surgery. It seems a strange assertion to make – over that time GP surgeries elsewhere in Brighton have successfully relocated to converted premises, for instance a former pub at the bottom of Elm Grove, and a former office block at Preston Park. In our area there are a number of vacant premises which could be converted, including 650 square metres on the ground floor of Crown House, Upper North Street; the former Blockbusters in Western Road; and the ground floor of Princes House, Queens Road. So why is the Primary Care Trust so reluctant to consider alternatives to the Royal Alex? As our editor always says, “It’s not what they’re telling you, it’s what they’re not telling you”.

Taylor Wimpey overpaid for the site, in the belief that they would be able to obtain permission to demolish all the buildings on it. According to the Distinct Valuer the site was worth £5 million for housing in 2007. Taylor Wimpey paid £11.5 million, so the National Health Service pocketed a windfall profit of £6.5 million. The Primary Care Trust has been using a Private Finance Initiative (PFI), Medical Centre Developments, to find new premises for the Montpelier Surgery. In November 2008 Medical Centre Developments signed a lease for a surgery on the Royal Alex site. It appears that to help finance this deal they raised money by taking out a mortgage on a medical centre in Birkenhead with the General Practice Finance Corporation (part of Aviva). The money that Medical Centre Developments paid for this lease has been in the hands of Taylor Wimpey’s solicitors for the past two years. So effectively the money that had been earmarked to find new premises for the Montpelier Surgery has been tied up for two years in the Royal Alex. If Taylor Wimpey can’t get planning permission for a surgery on the site, this money will have to be returned to Medical Centre Developments, with interest. Many in the area supported the well-funded ‘Save Our Surgery’ campaign, probably unaware that rather than being ‘given’ directly to the Montpelier Surgery, the Royal Alex surgery space would be placed into the hands of a privately-owned PFI company.

In surveys the public have consistently shown that they are overwhelmingly in favour of retaining and converting the main building. When Taylor Wimpey carried out a public consultation in August, about 80 per cent of comments favoured keeping the main building and only about 10 per cent were willing to sacrifice the main building for a surgery. The officers of the Clifton Montpelier Powis Community Alliance, the local residents’ association, have consistently repudiated these results, even banning residents from speaking about anything other than ‘the desirability of a GP surgery on the site’ at their public meetings, however, they now accept that a scaled down surgery proposal without a pharmacy in the conversion proposal ‘could be the way forward’.

So if all the parties involved would now agree to compromise, then we might be in sight of a conclusion to this saga. Taylor Wimpey’s S.E. Director David Brown has met representatives of the Montpelier & Clifton Hill Association and The Brighton Society to discuss the conversion scheme, which both societies support. Taylor Wimpey’s efforts to improve the conversion scheme and the fact that they’re persisting with it shows that they recognise the degree of public support there is for conversion. The MCHA is, albeit reluctantly, prepared to accept the demolition of the listable Dyke Road villa in order to save the main building. The Victoria Road surgery GPs say they do not need a pharmacy on the site, and they might now be prepared to drop their extravagant expansion plans and accept a smaller surgery in a new building on the site. With compromise from these groups now on the table it remains to be seen if the final player, Brighton and Hove City Council, would agree to trade off some of the affordable flats for a surgery. If they would then it would be possible to find space for the surgery in the conversion proposal. This could be a compromise that keeps almost everyone happy.

Local People: Roger Amerena

REGENCY — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 11:15:24 +0000

There are, without doubt, some strange things going on up in the Montpelier area of Brighton. Its venerable Montpelier and Clifton Hill Association (MCHA) is holding its annual Christmas party, charging £15 per ticket, on 4th December. Or is it? Expensively produced leaflets, bearing the association’s logo and charity number, were delivered to members, and invited them to attend the event being held at Montpellier Hall with, as the leaflet indicated, “the kind permission of Mr. Roger Amerena”. In fact, the leaflets were produced and distributed by ex-chairman of the association … one Roger Amerena. Not only is it not the MCHA Christmas Party (they are holding a free party for members on 10th December at St. Nicholas’ Church), it was not authorised in any way by the association. One can only speculate about the reasoning by Mr. Amerena, who had ceased being chairman and a trustee back in May of this year, prior to the society’s annual general meeting. The reason Mr. Amerena was forced to step down as chairman and a trustee was that he was declared bankrupt and, had he remained, the MCHA risked losing its charitable status of 40 years standing. Even when this was explained to him it did not seem to bother Mr. Amerena who cajoled two elderly members of the association to nominate and second him for the position of chairman at the upcoming AGM. When his nomination was rejected by the committee a further request was put forward – that Mr. Amerena should be immediately co-opted onto the committee and should be allowed to stand – unopposed, no less – as chairman at the next AGM. That proposal failed to find a seconder. Now Mr. Amerena is offering to pay people’s memberships of the MCHA, presumably as a means to have them lobby on his behalf.

At this point some of you may feel that I am being unfair to the gentleman, that his bankruptcy is shame enough, that it is an issue between himself and his creditors. That certainly might be the case if Mr. Amerena was all that he claims. The rumour he seems content to have bandied around is that he is a hard-working pillar of the community, who has had the misfortune to be financially crippled by virtue of the loss of all the money he personally put into the failed Coach House project. If he did in fact lose money then he is not alone, and a great deal more sympathy should be extended to those who gave money when they couldn’t afford to lose it in this way. With a silver tongue worthy of a used car salesman, he told some of them that there was no risk, and they might even see a profit. Even now it is not known how much was lost as despite the intention that the limited company formed to manage the Coach House would be converted into an open and accountable charitable trust, Roger Amerena never did this, and has resolutely refused to produce satisfactory accounts.

The days of bankrupts being hanged are long behind us and some now see bankruptcy as a cheap way to avoid paying their debts. Bearing this in mind it is not unfair to say that the actions of some bankrupts today are far less honourable than in days of old. I would suggest Mr. Amerena falls into that category. In fact far from being the solvent local bigwig he attempts to portray Roger Vincent Amerena has been the subject of bankruptcy proceedings in 1994, twice in 1996, in 1997 (when he was declared a bankrupt for three years), in 2005, and again this year, which led to his second official bankruptcy. He certainly wasn’t involved in any “philanthropic” conservation ventures during any of those occasions.

There is a reason I think people in the area, particularly MCHA members, need to know this. The issue is one of accountability, which Mr. Amerena seems to think himself above. When I was a trustee of the charity in 2004 it was clear that in Roger Amerena’s mind both he and the association were one. He regularly referred to his association and even his newsletter when talking about the association’s magazine – and this was prior to him even being chairman. He took staggering liberties such as obtaining mortgage quotations on the Coach House in the name of the MCHA with no authority from the association whatsoever. He misled advertisers, telling them that the trade card he was producing for the association was distributed “all over the area” when in fact it was delivered to only a couple of hundred members. These are by no means isolated examples. The culmination of all this was when the majority of the committee wrote to the then chairman, Mr. Amerena’s predecessor, stating that they felt Roger Amerena was unfit to become the next chairman. Several years later … and nothing seems to have changed.

Residents’ Association Hold Christmas Party In  Chairman’s Front Room

REGENCY — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 11:10:29 +0000

The Clifton Montpelier Powis Community Alliance (CMPCA) have often graced the pages of this publication for the various dubious activities of their officers. This year the organisation, which claims to represent some 2,500 households in the area, will be holding their official Christmas party (at £7.50 per head) in the chairman’s house. We’d love be able to tell you where all money went to, including £6,700 they fleeced from the National Lottery, but despite the constitution calling for open viewing of the documents of the association, and residents’ requests to do so, the officers have refused. One wonders what they are trying to hide.

Local History For Sale In  Auction This Month

REGENCY — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 11:09:21 +0000

Gorringes in Lewes will be selling a collection of Brighton prints belonging to Anthony Dale (1912-1993), founder of the Regency Society on 8th December, including two signed and dated watercolours of Kemptown by Norman Janes (b.1892).

Respected Local Businessman Dies Following Road Rage Attack

REGENCY — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 11:08:37 +0000

Tony Magdi, owner of a greengrocers in Portland Road, Hove, has died following injuries he sustained in a road rage incident outside his shop. Mr. Magdi, who was 52, was punched by Paul Lambeth so hard that it caused bleeding on his brain and put him into a coma. Mr. Magdi died shortly afterwards from a lung infection whilst still in a coma. Lambeth is due to be sentenced on December 23rd. Residents in the area are calling for a permanent memorial to be erected in memory of the much-loved greengrocer.

Suitcase Bomb Scare

MPs Expenses

REGENCY — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 11:07:34 +0000

The parliamentary body which organises MP’s expenses has released details of the claims made by our three MPs. Cheapest of the bunch was Mike Weatherley, Conservative MP for Hove who claimed £2,450 since May. Next was Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, with £5,176.02, and finally Simon Kirby, Conservative, representing Brighton Kemptown, who claimed £10,149.84.

You Might Survive A  Brighton Hospital Visit

REGENCY — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 11:05:44 +0000

Good news for those planning a new year op: despite several hospitals in the county having a higher than expected mortality rate for those passing through their doors, the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Eastern Road has been given a fairly clean bill of health by the Dr Foster Annual Report, with a lower than expected mortality rate of 94.5. I assume that’s the score and not the percentage chance that you’re going to die there. Don’t worry – it is, with 100 being the average across the country.

Regency Ward Councillor Cleared In Appeal Hearing

REGENCY — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 11:05:13 +0000

Common sense has prevailed, at least in one sector of political life, as Green councillor for Regency ward Jason Kitcat was cleared of any wrongdoing by a Standards Board appeal. Mr. Kitcat had uploaded footage from a public council meeting to YouTube, the world’s repository of ‘dog on skateboard’ videos, occasionally branching out into ‘cat falling down loo’. Mr. Kitcat’s video was a break from the norm, showing a tongue-tied Councillor Geoffrey Theobald, cabinet member for the environment, failing to answer questions about communal bins.

Are you the Lottery Winner?

REGENCY — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 11:04:28 +0000

Camelot, the organisation which runs the National Lottery, have appealed to Brighton and Hove residents to re-check their lottery tickets as the nearly £3 million prize from 10th November draw has never been collected. The winning numbers were 15, 26, 30, 35, 40, 41 and bonus ball 34. If you are reading this and find that you are suddenly £3 million richer, then I just wanted to say that both I and the entire REGENCY team have always liked you. Really.

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History Centre To Stay Open

REGENCY — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 11:02:08 +0000

Many were relived to hear that the council’s plan to close the local History Centre has been cancelled. Good to see that the council are taking note of people’s views in the press and through the petition facility on the council’s website.