The owner of a pub that was forced to close after a row over noise has made another bid to turn it into housing. The Freebutt pub in Brighton shut its doors in 2010 following complaints about noise which made the live music venue “unviable”. Plans have now been submitted to create replacement commercial premises on the ground floor, a seven-bedroom house in multiple occupation on the first floor and two one-bedroom flats at roof level.
It is not the first time One Phoenix Place has tried to transform the long-vacant site. Brighton and Hove City Council refused to grant planning permission for a million-pound scheme to convert the pub in Phoenix Place into homes in June 2020. Councillors said the proposal had not shown that there was no need for a pub or community facility at the site.
One Phoenix Place proposed “cluster flats” as houses in multiple occupation (HMO) with three wheelchair-accessible units and 23 “bed spaces” on the first, second and third floors. The appeal was refused by the planning inspectorate. The new proposal is “notably different” and would work within the confines of the current building.
Planning documents say there have been periods when squatters have entered the property resulting in “irreparable damage” to the building, which was described as being an “ever-worsening liability” It also said there has been constant marketing of the building as a pub for two years through Fludes, Rightmove and others to no avail. “The applic.
