Last Friday, March 8 was our opportunity to meet the people behind the proposed Winchelsea Road development and the opportunity to ask questions about what is planned. Rye News covered the announcement of the event (Aldi development consultation) which generated a lot of interest and we understand that on the day over 200 people came along to see what the development might look like. From feedback so far, it appears the town is largely in favour of developing the site but there are concerns about the additional traffic coming onto the Winchelsea Road, the lack of affordable housing and the environmental impact the development will have on the town.
Unlike the developers on the Ferry Road site, at least we all had the opportunity to talk face-to-face with those involved.
Rye Conservation Society and Rye town councillors were able to meet the developers and spokesmen later in the evening as groups and we understand the council is likely to support private and affordable homes rather than a large retirement home block, as currently planned. One of the main issues with Rye is that the town has so little available development land that it is therefore very important that the development mix on this and the Ferry Road site, has to be right if Rye is to cater for what is needed.
James Stewart from Rye News managed to have a frank and detailed conversation with Gary Gatt, director of Tunbridge Wells based developers, Decimus Property.
Why Rye? “It’s already a site allocated for development in the neighbourhood plan. It’s the perfect site for mixed use as it’s close to the town centre – very unusual in most towns.”
Have supermarkets been fighting it out? “We’re talking to supermarkets and house builders all the time. Lidl and Tesco were very interested, but Aldi won out. Rye doesn’t need a huge supermarket. This is the right size for Rye with 110 car spaces.”
What about social housing? “Social housing is not ruled out. it’s not in the current plans, but that may change. We’ve modelled how it might work, but we will need a viability study as part of the process.”
What are the next steps? “We hope to put in a planning application by the end of April / start of May. That’ll start the formal consultation. We are keen to engage with local people and ideally we want to get everything approved by early autumn, with demolition work starting before the end of the year.”
What about flood risk? “We are liaising with the Environment Agency and are committed to their rules about how any development must not make flood risk worse. We’ve remodelled the whole area, reducing the footprint of the development by 17%.”
If traffic lights are not a realistic option is a roundabout still a possibility? “There definitely won’t be traffic lights to get into the development, as the Winchelsea Road is a National Highways road and we don’t own the space around the junction to make it work. A roundabout is being considered, or a filter lane. We’re talking to highways to see what is achievable.”
What is clear is that all the designs on this scheme are still pretty fluid as input from Rother District Council and others will be considered carefully and which no doubt will become clearer to us all when the formal planning application is submitted and, available to scrutinise in the public domain.
In terms of the overall construction we understand that it is likely to start with an access road through the site, followed by the construction of the Aldi supermarket, then McCarthy and Stone and Decimus Property will build in parallel.
Rye News will be tracking progress on this site and planning application which follows with updates along this interesting journey and lots to consider by all concerned, who will have to adapt to whatever is built and accept the changes this development will bring.
Image Credits: Cavendish Consulting , James Stewart , Peter Connock .
One of my biggest concerns was that the Aldi car park won’t be big enough — the amount of parking per square meter of retail surface is actually lower than at the Hastings store, I think, and I can imagine parking and traffic chaos at busy times during the tourist season. I was also concerned about the idea of an expensive retirement block in that location — McCarthy & Stone units available in Hawkhurst start at almost £400,000 for a 1-bedroom flat, which isn’t affordable for most Rye residents. Personally I’d like to see a bigger car park and just affordable housing, with restrictions in place to ensure it can’t be snapped up by investment buyers and re-sold at market rates or turned into AirBnBs, so I’m glad to see the council is trying to steer the development in the right direction.
I suggest many people could walk to Aldi so the car park would be large enough.
I would personally replace the McCarthy and Stone retirement flats with social housing run by a Housing Association, not to be confused with affordable housing.
The large retirement block at The Strand is sufficient.
How about using some of the 106 monies that developers will have to pay to upgrade and refit the public conveniences close to the railway station. I have heard many visitor comments about this facility.