Mid Sussex District Update July 2024

We have a mixed bag of news to report of goings-on within Mid Sussex over the last 6 months.

Mid Sussex District Plan Review
In our last update (February 2024) we reported on our submissions to Mid Sussex District Council’s (MSDC) ongoing Plan Review, and our wish that the Plan should be more ambitious in its climate change and environmental objectives, whilst re-thinking it’s housing policy proposals to facilitate additional affordable housing and to scrap the proposed site allocations around Sayers Common and Albourne.

MSDC’s published timetable anticipated that during Spring 2024 it would have finished considering the representations it had received last January on the draft Plan Review and submitted the Plan to the Planning Inspectorate in time for an autumn public examination of its proposals. As we write the version of MSDC’s Plan that the Council intends to submit for examination has yet to be finalised (don’t hold your breath, but is there any possible glimmer of hope that the public’s representations has led the Council into a bit of a re-think?); so we doubt the achievability of MSDC’s timetable for getting their Plan Review into place. Meanwhile we live with an out-of-date District Plan; and that has planning control implications.

We do not expect the new Government’s focus on using the planning system as a key tool to re-energise the economy to impact the current draft plan. However, it remains to be seen what the longer term impact of their planning reform proposals will be.

We need to correct one misstatement in our last report on the District Plan. We commented that MSDC’s draft Plan does not allocate any new brownfield sites as part of their Review. The word “significant” got missed out. We should have made it clear that there are a number of brownfield sites in Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill area proposed for development, including a site near Burgess Hill Station where 300 new houses will hopefully be built. There are also indications that redevelopment of the Martlet’s Centre there is moving slowly forward, though whether its new affordable homes potential is being maximised is unclear to us. We apologise to any of you who were confused by our comment.

Ansty Farm planning application
In February we reported on a planning application by Fairfax Developments to build 1,400 homes on a totally unsuitable, unsustainable agricultural site between Cuckfield and Ansty village – a proposal vigorously opposed by their local communities and parish councils. The application remains under consideration by MSDC.

We suspect that Fairfax submitted their application when they did in order to secure themselves the best possible seat at the District Plan Review public examination to enable them to try to persuade the Planning Inspector to force MSDC to allocate this site for development within the Plan contrary to the wishes of the Council and the local communities there that it represents. CPRE Sussex will continue to be active in opposing this scheme. Watch this space!

West Hoathly Brickworks, Sharpthorne
This now approved application involves building over 100 houses on a derelict brownfield brickworks site within the High Weald AONB at Sharpthorne. The application created tension between two conflicting planning principles that CPRE espouses: the principle of supporting sustainable development on brownfield sites on the one hand, and the NPPF rule that development (particularly major development) should be refused unless it is limited in scale and extent, which could not be said of this scheme that involved dense development of buildings up to 3 stories high.

CPRE Sussex took the position that the major scheme proposed was not sustainable, and that MSDC should work with partners to promote an alternative less intensive scheme of affordable homes and small business premises to encourage local rural businesses. Sadly, that did not happen, and the applicant developer’s proposal was accepted, with MSDC deciding that 108 new homes in Sharpthorne would improve the High Weald. This decision, combined with a decision a few years back to allow 600 houses to be built within the High Weald at Pease Pottage, shows MSDC as an unreliable custodian of our own local National Landscape when major development is concerned.

Onshore oil exploration: Balcombe
Angus Energy still has planning permission to continue test drilling for oil at its long contentious site in Balcombe. It remains to be seen whether Angus finds a commercially valuable oil reserve there. If they were to do so, they would need to apply for planning permission to exploit that reserve, an application that CPRE Sussex would strongly oppose.

Their life has recently been made a bit more difficult. A recent decision by England’s Supreme Court, involving the Horse Hill site near Horley in Surrey, determined that planning authorities must take into account the climate change impact of the combustion of oil extracted from the site as well as its on-site impacts. An environmental win; but not, in itself, a definitive death-knell for fracking as environmental impacts have to be weighed up against the misguided planning rule that great weight must be given to the supposed economic benefits of oil and gas extraction. So, the residents of Balcombe, who have spent well over a decade facing the potential threat of oil exploitation at the Angus Energy site, remain in unfortunate limbo. The new Government needs to make it clear that onshore oil exploration will not be permitted.

Gatwick Second Runway
CPRE Sussex has been actively supporting CAGNE, the umbrella community group at the forefront of the fight against the expansion of Gatwick, and that is chaired by the indefatigable Sally Pavey, who is also one of our trustees. A second runway, with the resulting major surge in flights, would have huge, environmentally and socially damaging impacts for all communities around the airport. The public examination of the airport’s expansion plans has been taking place in recent weeks with CAGNE vigorously challenging the airport operator’s evidence as to both need and impacts. CPRE Sussex has also weighed in on the debate.

It will be interesting to see whether it becomes accepted that the Supreme Court judgement about the need for planning authorities to take account of off-site fuel combustion will be applicable by extension to the airport growth industry, especially given the current absence of any clear path to net zero emissions for the aviation industry.

Miscellaneous
The change of Government heralds yet further potential changes to our planning system, which politicians of all stripes misguidedly blame as a major contributor to the country’s economic stagnation. We will keep everyone updated on the detail and implications for us in Sussex of the changes foreshadowed in the Labour Party’s manifesto through our website www.cpresussex.org.uk

Meanwhile we thank those of you who joined us at our CPRE Sussex AGM at Amberley Museum on 2 July. It was a happy occasion with an impassioned talk by Professor Clive Webb entitled “the Invention of Sussex”. Our director, Paul Steedman reported on CPRE Sussex’s impressive range of new planning and non-planning initiatives. We will also hope to see many of you at our second CPRE Countryside Day at Knepp Wilding estate on Saturday 7th September. If last year’s inaugural event is anything to go by, it will be a great family fun day out with lots of opportunities to learn more about our wonderful countryside. So please book tickets via our website and put it in your diary.