Countyside charity calls proposals for thousands of homes in Lewes District ‘developer-led’ in response to Local Plan consultation: plans for villages ‘unsuitable’, says CPRE Sussex

CPRE, the Countryside Charity Sussex, published its response to Lewes District Council’s ‘Towards a Local Plan – Spatial Strategy and Policies Directions’ consultation, which ended in February.

The council is preparing its new Local Plan to provide the planning framework for its plan area to 2040 and to help the plan area provide homes, jobs and community facilities.

CPRE Sussex said on its website: “While there is a willingness to not just accept the Government’s ‘Standard Method’ housing target, and some positive thinking on climate change, at this stage it appears heavily, and unfortunately, developer-inspired in its ‘spatial options’, and lacks basic information such as housing targets for individual towns and villages.”

CPRE Sussex said the plan ‘keeps alive the likelihood of significant new developments on greenfield sites in and around Low Weald villages’. But CPRE was pleased the ‘Eton Mess’ proposals for 3,000 homes between East Chiltington and Plumpton Green were not supported.

In its response, published on its website, CPRE Sussex said it supports, in principle, the plan’s ‘green vision’ on environment, climate change and affordability. But it is concerned about the draft plan’s approach to spatial strategy and settlement pattern. It said: “Virtually all the new housing proposed for rural villages is in locations that are intrinsically unsustainable.”

CPRE Sussex is worried there has not been a formal agreement about the proposed split of the housing target for Lewes District between South Downs National Park and the rest of the District. The response also commented on redevelopment opportunities in Lewes town, saying likely delivery would be ‘far below the level assumed in the draft Local Plan’.

Aerial photos show another cliff fall on border of Saltdean and Telscombe

CPRE Sussex said the ‘car dependent’ Hamsey parish, which was identified as potentially suitable for more than 1,000 homes, is ‘unsuitable’. The response said large housing numbers proposed for Ringmer would ‘radically change’ the village’s character. CPRE believes the ‘infrastructure consequences’ of thousands of new homes in villages have not been considered.

CPRE Sussex also called the proposals ‘almost entirely developer-led’ instead of delivering the types of housing needed, adding that new countryside development would bring more private cars into the District.

CPRE Sussex is concerned the housing numbers and locations proposed could be contrary to the demands of tackling climate change too. CPRE added that it wants to see a stronger affordable housing policy with more smaller dwellings to mitigate the housing crisis.

Lewes District Council Cabinet Member for Planning and Infrastructure Laurence O'Connor said: “I’m pleased to see that the CPRE agree with the policies on biodiversity, sustainability and the importance of building greener, cheaper to heat affordable homes in the district.”

But he blamed the Government for a ‘developer-led planning system’. He said the Government’s ‘much-promised and long-awaited' National Planning Framework would be ‘a developers handbook for building on green spaces that Local Authorities have to follow for fear of being thrown at the mercy of the Planning Inspector’.

He said: “This is a consultation on the assessment of sites so far and by no means should anyone think any site in this document marked as potentially deliverable will end up in the Plan until the assessment and the application of the policies is finalised later in the year.”