Lowe Management Limited has applied to allow people to live in the former Brighton Girls junior school building, in Radinden Manor Road, Hove, as property guardians.
The application is for temporary planning permission while the owner, the Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST), tries to sell the building.
Brighton Girls left the site in 2021, consolidating on its main site, in Montpelier Road, Brighton, and put the building on the market for £4.5 million.
According to the planning application, the site is still being marketed for sale although it was reportedly sold subject to contract in 2024.
The application to Brighton and Hove City Council is retrospective. People are already living in the building which was previously Cardinal Newman Catholic School’s lower school and before that Cottesmore St Mary’s Secondary School.
Floor plans, submitted as part of the planning application, showed classrooms divided into bedrooms, with new corridors as well as extra toilets and shower rooms.
The former school kitchen and dining area would be adapted to provide the same facilities for residents – and the former gym was described as a communal area.
The application, prepared by Maddox Planning, said that Lowe Management was “an experienced provider of this type of accommodation”.
The proposals were described as temporary to ensure that the building remained occupied, with no end date given.
The application included a planning statement which touched on “social impact”, saying: “While it is anticipated that a proportion of occupants may include individuals employed in essential services, the accommodation is not restricted to any specific group.
“The benefits of the proposal should therefore be understood more broadly as contributing to housing supply and making effective use of an otherwise vacant site.
“The occupation of the building will provide natural surveillance and reduce the risk of antisocial behaviour associated with vacancy.
“The continued use of the building will also support the local area by maintaining activity and avoiding the negative effects associated with a vacant and unmanaged site.”
Independent councillor Samer Bagaeen, who represents Westdene and Hove Park ward, has asked the council’s planning team why it had not taken enforcement action.
Cllr Bagaeen said: “Our residents are angry that things have got to this point.”
Councillor Samer Bagaeen, Independent Westdene and Hove Park
He said enforcement action should have been triggered when residents first flagged building work at the site, adding: “Instead, we have been, at the applicant’s behest, waiting for a planning application.”
He also questioned the apparent lack of engagement with the community on the part of the owner, the GDST.
There are currently five comments about the application on the council’s website. Three are listed as objections.
One anonymous objector, whose details were redacted by the council, said: “A development housing 47 occupants would inevitably generate significant noise and disturbance, wholly different from the building’s former educational use.
“There have already been at least two incidents of late-night antisocial behaviour by current tenants in the short period of occupation.”
Another anonymous commenter said: “The proposal makes sense to secure the site on a temporary basis while the long-term future is decided but, unless I have missed it, there are no proposals to limit the use for a specific period of time.
“I would suggest, if permission is granted, that this be limited to say 12 months to give the residents some comfort and if needed a fresh application can be submitted in due course to extend.”
To view the application or comment, click here and search for BH2026/00749.
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