CPRE Sussex calls on Mid Sussex District Council to withdraw draft District Plan update

CPRE Sussex volunteers and staff say the review, which updates the 2018 District Plan, includes excessive housing targets and major site allocations.

With central Government indicating it may change the rules governing housing targets, the charity says the council should withdraw its current plan and explore the opportunity to rewrite it.

It has also criticised the amount of time residents and other interested parties have been given to comment and a complete lack of targets on climate mitigation and environment policy.

“Mid Sussex District Council has been working on this update for two years but only exposed its ideas to the public for the first time in November,” said CPRE Sussex director Brian Kilkelly.

“This means people have had a paltry six-week consultation period to comment on more than 3,000 pages of plan and complicated evidence documentation.

"How can the council even begin to claim it has given the people of Mid Sussex an opportunity to contribute and support these plans?”

Last February, leader of the council Jonathan Ash-Edwards wrote to Michael Gove telling him the Government’s algorithm is ‘simply not an accurate reflection of local need’ and imposing it would make it ‘highly probable that Mid Sussex cannot achieve a reviewed Plan with community support'.

Analysis by CPRE Sussex has shown applying flawed Government algorithms requires Mid Sussex District Council to plan for about 10,000 excess homes from now until 2039.

Despite this, the draft, which extends the Plan period from 2031 to 2039, imposes the same housing targets Mr Ash-Edwards criticised.

It proposes allocating 28 new sites for future housing development, including three new ‘20-minute communities’, each made up of between 1,400 and 2,300 houses.

“To make matters worse, Mid Sussex District Council is proposing to locate the bulk of that new housing in the countryside, including three large greenfield sites that are as unsustainably located as they are unnecessary," said CPRE Sussex volunteer Michael Brown.

"What happened to the government’s commitment to ‘brownfield first’?

“Mr Ash-Edwards should be putting his money where his mouth is.

“We call on him to withdraw his draft Plan and work on revisions which the Mid Sussex community could rally around to meet local housing needs without such terrible damage to our countryside.”

Read the full letter to Mr Ash-Edwards at cpresussex.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2022/12/Letter-to-Mid-Sussex-Council-leader-17.12.2022.pdf

Read the full consultation response from CPRE Sussex at cpresussex.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2022/12/Mid-Sussex-District-Plan-Review-CPRE-Sussex-submission.pdf