GB News’s Simon Evans has found himself at the centre of a “bizarre” council row after being denied planning permission for a driveway outside his own home.
Edinburgh Fringe favourite Evans had tried to build a one-car drive outside his house in Hove, East Sussex – but was slapped with a council veto because he lives in a Conservation Area.
To make matters worse, the Headliners host’s home sits between two other near-identical properties which both boast the driveways – leaving him “astonished” as to why he can’t have his own.
The whole ordeal “has been enormously stressful, expensive and frustrating”, he told GB News.
“Though the one upside is the overwhelming support we’ve had from our neighbours,” he added.
He had successfully applied to Brighton and Hove City Council for permission for a dropped kerb crossover, which he then had built to exact council specifications.
But his application didn’t include permission to remove his front wall – and when he applied for retrospective permission, his authority’s own Conservation team objected.
He told The People’s Channel: “The council’s justification for denying permission seems to us to be incoherent and based on a fantasy version of what the street might have looked like if the conservation measures hadn’t been imposed after virtually all the planning horses had bolted.”
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The council claims all the other homes had their drives installed before 1984, when Denmark Villas became a Conservation Area.
But Evans wants to install a car charging point – and can’t help but wonder why he’s still being told “no”.
“It clearly flies in the face of the stated objectives of both the local authorities and the national Government – of which our MP Peter Kyle is a Cabinet Minister – that we should be making urgent progress towards Net Zero and switching to electric vehicles – something which is manifestly impractical without a domestic charging point,” he told GB News.
And he told The Sun: “It’s a joke really because a failure to move with the times is exactly what is holding back such environmental initiatives.”
Evans said: “Being a comedian, I often return from gigs after midnight and not being able to find a parking space within half a mile of my home is miserable.
“All the houses around me have purpose-built driveways. It doesn’t detract from the character of the road – in fact, it would make them look more uniform.”
In his application statement, Brighton and Hove City Council planners said: “There are examples of similar arrangements along Denmark Villas.
“They all result in the loss of some of the front boundary walls in lieu of car parking.
“Regrettably, this loss of an historic architectural feature serves to demonstrate how incremental changes can erode the historic character of street scenes in Conservation Areas.
“The historic character of these properties has been severely impacted by these works.”
But Labour councillor Alison Thomson supported him, saying: “We have to be able to make changes. I don’t think this is, to my mind, significant harm… This is an incremental change that does no harm.”
Now, the Evans family now need to decide whether to appeal the council’s decision to the Secretary of State.
GB News has approached Brighton and Hove City Council for comment.
