Councillor Bowdler & I have written the following letter of objection to the Planning Inspectorate regarding the proposed housing development in Marshfoot Lane.
https://hailsham.news/marshfoot-lane-development-called-in-by-secretary-of-state/
LETTER TO PLANNING INSPECTORATE:
TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING (DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT PROCEDURE) (ENGLAND) ORDER 2015
Outline planning application by Welbeck Strategic Land II for development of up to 300 residential units (including 35% affordable), together with associated open space, play areas, landscaping, internal roads and parking, and provision of new vehicular access from Marshfoot Lane on land at Old Marshfoot Farm, Marshfoot Lane, Hailsham, BN27 2RE (Application No. WD/2017/0458/MAO)
As the County Councillors for Hailsham, whose Divisions contain or are adjacent to the proposed development, we would like to add our support to the letters from Hailsham Town Council and Mr Neil Stone for the Secretary of State to call in the above planning application for determination by a planning inspector after a public inquiry.
Hailsham & adjacent Polegate suffer from the understandable limitations imposed upon development in the adjacent High Weald AONB, Ashdown Forest, Pevensey Levels and South Downs National Park. This creates difficult to sustain development pressures on Hailsham in particular, exacerbated by a lack of infrastructure capacity in key utilities and the transport system. It also has a substantial knock-on impact on pollution levels in the area to the south along the A27.
The impossible additional pressures placed upon Wealden District Planning by a national planning system which takes little account of this context and adheres rigidly to a system for the achievement of housing units based on the dubious methodology of extrapolating past population trends into future projections is compounding an already difficult position. The consequence is that more and more challenging sites, such as this one, are pulled into the development plan.
We note that the 2018-based ONS population projections have already had to be revised down (March 2020) and that they acknowledge that their projections do not take into account Brexit or changes to Immigration Policy that will inevitably flow from it. We note that net international migration still accounts for 70% of the projected population growth in England and as such is one of the key variables in these dubious calculations.
Expanding on the ONS data for this area, the 2018-2028 projection for Wealden is for net population growth of 9,801 (+6.1%). This comprises a negative natural change of -5,879, overwhelmed by an assumed net-migration into the area from within the UK of 13,713 and from outside of the UK of 2,294. So the entire projection is about accommodating net-migration to the area of one kind or another based on demographic projections which are heavily caveated by the ONS itself and predicated substantially on past historic trends.
The proposed development will simply add to these pressures. We are in agreement with the Town Council that the following additional concerns regarding this particular development should be given consideration:
1. The proximity of the site to, and its effects upon, the Pevensey Levels which is designated a RAMSAR site, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a Nature Review Site, a Special Area of Conservation, and a National Nature Reserve, and in particular damage to biodiversity and natural habitats of endangered species.
2. The present inability of Southern Water to accept the foul water discharge into mains sewers without significant upgrades and reinforcements to the sewerage infrastructure including the
Hailsham North and Hailsham South Waste Water Treatment works both of which discharge to the Levels, and the objections from the Environment Agency and Natural England to the use of packaged treatment works as a means of sewerage.
3. The poor access to the site and the resultant strain that it would create on the local road network
4. The lack of sufficient physical and social infrastructure in Hailsham at present to meet the increased demands being created by the rapid increase in developments taking place
5. The comments of the Inspector appointed to hold the examination in public on the now withdrawn 2018 local plan of the lack of soundness in the Council’s distribution strategy for providing housing across the District
6. The obvious lack of transparency and exclusion of public participation in the planning process.
For all of the above reasons we would respectfully ask the Secretary of State to exercise the power vested in him and to refer this application to a full and proper examination at a public inquiry at which members of the public and other objectors may be heard and their views given proper consideration.
Yours sincerely,
Gerard Fox (County Councilor for Hailsham New Town)
Bob Bowdler (County Councilor for Hailsham Market)
