Windsor House Hotel: Appeal hearing postponed amid plans to house single homeless people in Worthing

Controversial plans would see single homeless people housed at the Windsor House Hotel in Windsor Road. An appeal hearing was due to take place at Worthing Town Hall on Tuesday, March 26.

However, a note left on the Worthing Town Hall door by the council said the public hearing had been indefinitely postponed due to ‘unforeseen circumstances’.

The note from the council read: “Once we are notified of a new date we will notify people who are registered to attend.”

The hearing was over the planning application from housing and social care provider SDR Group to provide shared living accommodation for 44 single homeless people at the Windsor House Hotel in Windsor Road, Worthing.

The application was refused by Worthing Borough Council’s planning committee in January 2023, a decision which was appealed by SDR Group to the planning inspectorate.

A ten-year contract worth £7.8million between SDR and Adur and Worthing councils was made last year to accommodate the councils’ homeless residents closer to Adur and Worthing, and to save the councils roughly £2.5million in bed and breakfast costs over the ten years.

A spokesperson for Worthing Borough Council said: “A planning inspector will consider whether or not SDR Group should have planning permission to use the building in Windsor Road as shared living accommodation with 44 bedrooms divided into five self-contained annexes, each with shared kitchen, dining and living spaces.”

The inspector was due to ‘review all of the written evidence and statements’ that have already been submitted but ‘will also consider evidence given on the day’.

The initial proposal was rejected after residents described Windsor House Hotel as the ‘wrong location for such a mass over-concentration’.

At a meeting in June 2023, hundreds of residents, including people with disabilities, were left queuing outside a community hall after being denied access. Click here to read more.

The plan would see a ten-year contract worth £7.8 million given to SDR for 44 temporary accommodation residences, split by need between Adur and Worthing Councils, with the deal expected to save the council £2.5 million over the ten years, no longer paying around £113 per night per person to hotels and B&Bs.

For more information about how the planning appeal hearing process works, visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/planning-appeals-dealt-with-by-a-hearing-taking-part/guide-to-taking-part-in-planning-and-listed-building-consent-appeals-proceeding-by-a-hearing.