Plans for a 70 home housing development in Peasmarsh are set to go in front of Rother councillors on Thursday 28 May.
The proposed development by by Kitewood Estates Limited would involve the demolition of an existing property in Main Street — known as The Garden House — with a new access road to be built in its place.
Peasmarsh Parish Council, says the change would have too great an impact on surrounding properties. In a statement, a parish council spokesman said, “Owners of the adjacent properties are concerned at how close the road is to their properties, especially if the site is being accessed by large vehicles. Furthermore, the proposed access site is not owned by the developer. It feels like history is repeating itself as more than 50 years ago a similar scheme was proposed and refused.”
The statement says the previous scheme was partly refused on highways safety and capacity grounds, suggesting a similar situation would result from the current proposals.
The parish council also raised concerns about the capability of the road to cope with additional traffic, especially in combination with the journeys generated by the recently-approved Pippins proposals — a 41-home development on an adjacent site.
No objection has been raised by East Sussex Highways, which says the scheme will be acceptable as long as it provides a new crossing, footways and bus stop on the A268. It has also called on the developer to provide a financial contribution towards bus services.
The parish council has also raised concerns around a shortage of medical care and school places, and highlighted recent outages in water and electricity.
The parish council says the village currently contains 420 homes. The 70-home development, the parish council said, when added to the 41-homes at the Pippins site and 10 approved at the Pond Cottage site near Jempsons would add up to 121 homes — a more than 25 per cent increase in the size of the village. It argues this would be excessive growth.
Planning officers are recommending the committee approve the application, based on the fact the district council has an overall housing land supply shortage and an “out-of-date” local plan. In these circumstances, national planning rules place a “presumption in favour of sustainable development.”
Officers identify some “limited harm” to the High Weald National Landscape, partly due to the division of an existing public right of way which runs through the site. However, they say this harm would be “highly localised” and outweighed by the scheme’s benefits, which include affordable housing.
If approved the development would comprise: six one-bedroom maisonettes; 35 two-bedroom houses; 14 three-bedroom houses; and 15 four-bedroom houses. Eighteen of the two-bed houses, four of the three-bed houses and all six of the maisonettes would be classed as affordable homes.
Image Credits: The landscape plan for the overall development. Image credit Kitewood Estates Limited , Google Maps .