Cllr. Jackie O’Quinn

BH2021/02054 – Goldstone Retail Park

2^nd July 2021:

There are already two outlets which provide food and drink at the Hove Retail Park and neither of them stays open 24/7 - the proposed opening times being applied for regarding the Costa Coffee outlet. 24/7 opening times will change the whole nature of the retail park which has previously had strict hours for opening applied to both retail and hospitality outlets. 24/7 hours will open the area up to cars, motorbikes and pedestrians late at night and in the early hours of the morning, and the resulting noise will disturb the local residents who live in Goldstone Lane, adjacent to the retail Park. I particularly object to the proposed outside seating area as this will become a major source of noise for local residents late at night and in the early hours of the morning.

I have noticed that already there are young people hanging around in the car park

outside Lidl later into the evening and often being quite noisy, but at least they tend to disperse when Lidl closes at 10pm. There have been various anti-social behaviour incidents in Hove Park recently, the worst one being when the Hove Park Café was set on fire several weeks ago. Thus, it is not helpful to have a food and drink outlet open 24/7 which will encourage people into the area late at night, especially if they have been drinking alcohol elsewhere. It would mitigate the impact of the café if 10pm were the closing time, in line with Lid, and if the outside seating area was removed from the application or made non-accessible from 7pm onwards.

I would ask that this application is looked at very carefully and either refused or the relevant measures taken to ensure an absolute minimum of disturbance to local residents, both in Goldstone Lane (Goldsmid Ward) and to residents who live around Hove Park.