Brighton Arms Firm Secures Planning Permission After Appeal

An arms company will be allowed to keep a temporary extension to its Brighton factory after appealing to the Planning Inspectorate.

L3 Harris wants to keep the extension to its site at Emblem House in Home Farm Road,  but Brighton and Hove City Council’s Planning Committee unanimously refused the proposals in June last year.

But at the start of yesterday’s Planning Committee hearing, chair Alison Thomson announced the council’s decision had been overturned on appeal.

She said:

“The inspectorate has decided that the appeal will be allowed, which is disappointing for those of us who voted against approval at the time.

“Officers are now reviewing the appeal decision and will update members again in due course if there are any grounds for challenge.”

Campaigners protested outside Hove Town Hall in the months leading up to the committee meeting last year.

On the day of the meeting, protestors strung the names of Palestinian children who have died in the conflict in Gaza around the entrance to Hove Town Hall.

In its decision last year, the committee said:

“The benefit of retaining the extension on a permanent basis is outweighed by its impact on community cohesion and the need to safeguard the public interest in terms of fostering good relations between persons who share protected characteristics and persons who do not share them.

“Retaining the extension would have a disproportionately negative impact on the requirement to achieve the council’s equality objectives as a result of increasing risks of discrimination, harassment and victimisation to communities, particularly minority ethnic and religious groups, where risk to the safety of persons who share protected characteristics feature, contrary to section 149 (1) of the Equality Act 2010.”

L3 Harris said, in its appeal application, that the objections focused mainly on the company’s weapons-related products and that this was not a planning issue.

Weapons and related products were regulated in other ways.

The company said:

“The development does not cause any harm to the appearance of the main building or the wider location and that removal of the extension would adversely impact on the business requirements of the appellant, with associated risk to local employment.

“If the extension were to be removed, this would cause environmental harms through the loss of the embodied carbon in the existing structure and the potential for materials to enter into the waste stream as a result of the removal.”

In their decision, the planning inspector (ST Wilkinson) said the main issue is the effect on community cohesion and safeguarding people within the community who share protected characteristics.

The inspector recognised the application received approximately 1,000 comments from 650 objectors and four petitions against the proposals signed by 1,000 people.

The inspector noted the council’s decision included an equalities impact assessment (EqIA), highlighting tensions arising from the scheme amid “conflicts in Gaza and the Middle East”.

However, in their decision, the inspector said there was only anecdotal evidence of hate crimes.

The inspector said:

“There have also been reports to elected members from representatives of local ethnic groups that their members feel increasingly unsafe and isolated.

"However, no evidence is before me identifying a direct link between these concerns and the appeal scheme.

“The appeal site is physically linked to and operationally used for ancillary warehousing purposes for the existing factory.

“However, the outputs from the manufacturing process, namely military hardware is not a planning matter. The current operations are lawful in planning terms and the appeal scheme is ancillary to this purpose.

“There is no evidence that the original grant of the temporary planning permission in 2018, has contributed to community tensions and adversely impacted on ethnic groups who share protected characteristics.

“Whilst I acknowledge the strength and depth of these objections, it is important to distinguish between the scale of the proposed extension and the existing operations across the wider site.

“The appeal scheme is for an extension to an existing factory located on an industrial/business estate.”

The inspector ruled there is no evidence that the appeal would adversely impact on groups who share protected characteristics and granted planning permission.

L3 Harris’s neighbour and landlord, Paxton Access, has said that it planned to give notice to the company to vacate the premises when its lease expired in 2027.