Wealden District Council’s Majors Planning Committee approved a pair of reserved matters applications connected to Ridgewood Farm — a major mixed-used development on the west edge of the town.
Collectively, the two applications had sought planning permission to build both 750 new homes and an industrial unit providing 1,884 sqm of floor space.
READ MORE: Sussex town tormented by swarms of flies for years
The proposals followed on from an outline scheme approved in 2016, which secured planning permission to build up to 1,000 new homes on the overall site, as well as a new primary school and retail, community and leisure space.
While both applications were eventually approved by the committee, Uckfield ward councillors Donna French and Ben Reed had called for deferral of the housing element of the application, citing a number of “unresolved issues”.
Cllr French (Ind) said: “I’d like to start by being clear that Uckfield Town Council and myself are not trying to stop this application, we are just seeking to help deliver the best possible development for this site.
“I have highlighted 45 issues that are still to be resolved. I do not have time to go through all of those in my five minutes, but I have a copy of them over there. I am just going to concentrate on a few of those.”
The concerns highlighted by Cllr French included: the potential impact of the development on an area of ancient woodland; the impact on a protected oak tree; the level of consultation with local members; the impact of the development on Victoria Pleasure Grounds; parking; and existing issues of swarming flies originating from a Southern Water treatment works on the northern edge of the development.
Cllr French concluded her statement by calling on the committee to defer the application. She said: “This is the largest reserved matters application to date which has come to Uckfield. We must get it right for our future; this is our chance to do that.
“I urge you to consider everything that I have said and to defer this application to a future meeting, giving the officers and developers time to address the unresolved issues with the consultees, especially Uckfield Town Council.”
Similar views were shared in a statement read on behalf of Cllr Reed, who the committee heard was unable to attend the meeting.
The ward councillors’ arguments saw support from committee member Cllr Neil Cleaver (Con), who said: “Here we are yet again. We’ve got 9,000 houses land-banked. We have a fly population in Uckfield, which is swarming. And yet here we are sitting on reserved matters for a planning application when Southern Water haven’t made upgrades to resolve this issue.
“But people are going to be buying these houses and they are going to be sitting in their gardens or sitting in their houses with their windows shut, because they can’t open them … swarming with flies.
“Have all these councillors sitting round this committee actually been up there, when they have had bad fly contamination. Silence. Well I cannot support this.”
Cllr Cleaver went on to say he could support a deferral of the application. He said such a deferral should be on the basis the council would take steps to address the “unresolved issues” raised by ward councillors and that the council’s deputy leader — Cllr Rachel Millward — would meet with Southern Water to discuss ways of mitigating the “fly contamination”.
Other councillors shared some concerns around elements of the scheme, but the committee as a whole ultimately opted to grant planning permission.
Proposing approval for the housing application, Cllr Daniel Manvell (Lab) said: “It has been an interesting discussion, although I think we have sometimes discussed things that aren’t exactly pertinent to what is a reserved matters application.
“I think what is particularly interesting when you go through the report is the reference the applicant has made to legal advice about not being able to regret, essentially, the outline planning permission and to deal with that through the reserved matters.
“We can all see why there might be those [regrets] coming forwards in this discussion. There are numerous things in [the outline permission] I wouldn’t be happy with — only 15 per cent affordable housing is atrocious, given we deliver 35 per cent on most sites these days — and all of that really speaks to previous iterations of this council not getting a local plan sorted.
“We can’t discuss those things, but we can all accept we are frustrated by the constraints we have today.”
He added: “Residents have been waiting for homes on these sites for years. Years and years and years. I don’t think it would be responsible to defer this yet again — to have more waiting and more time — when this is probably the best we are going to get.”
The housing element of the proposal is expected to comprise 50 one-bed, 136 two-bed, 321 three-bed, 211 four-bed and 32 five-bed units. Of these 15 per cent would be classed as affordable housing.
It is set to be delivered as part of a partnership between developers Redrow Homes and Places for People. Redrow Homes are expected to build 489 of the new properties, with Places for People building the remaining 261.
These homes would be expected to be built out in several phases.
Developer Taylor Wimpey has previously secured permission to build the remaining 250 homes.
For further information see applications WD/2023/2939/MRM (housing) and WD/2023/2935/MRM (industrial unit) on the Wealden District Council planning portal.
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