Mid Sussex District Update October 2024

CPRE Sussex has recently been involved in a number of issues in Mid Sussex District in addition to the Mid Sussex District local plan review.

Ansty and Cuckfield 

Nearly 100 residents of Ansty and Cuckfield attended a public meeting on 8 October to discuss the threat of a major development scheme being proposed by developer Fairfax.  Fairfax wants to build 1,450 new houses on agricultural land that currently separates the two villages. The community, led by the two parish councils of Cuckfield and Ansty & Staplefield and by the Cuckfield Society, have been fighting this threat for nearly two years now.  Support for their opposition to the development scheme remains solid and vocal.

The meeting was chaired by Brad Williams, chair of Ansty Parish Council, and heard reports from a number of speakers, including Michael Brown of CPRE Sussex, ahead of imminent hearings before the Planning Inspectorate into the soundness of a new District Plan being proposed by Mid Sussex District Council, and the council’s consideration of a planning application for the scheme submitted by Fairfax.

The so called Cucksty site is not allocated for development within the new draft Plan and, in CPRE Sussex’s view, would be a wholly unsustainable location for such a major scheme.  But there is concern that, if the Council were required by the Planning Inspectorate to increase its proposed new annual housing target, it might backtrack on its decision not to support development of the Cucksty site.

CPRE Sussex has been actively supporting the residents of the two affected villages in their desire to maintain the integrity of their village communities and to see off this totally unsuitable threat once and for all. As Michael Brown said at the meeting: “The future of your communities lies in your hands.  You are fortunate to have two parish councils that were so on the ball in picking up tis threat at such an early stage and to have engaged so fully and regularly with you all to learn your views and to take effective steps to represent those views to the authorities concerned.  CPRE Sussex has really appreciated the opportunity to work alongside you as you seek to protect your community. Our values here are yours”.

Lindfield

Mid Sussex planning volunteer, Katherine Surgeoner, has been working alongside the Lindfield Society to fight an application (now under appeal) by developers, Gladman, to build 90 houses on open green fields outside Lindfield’s village boundary.

The village is already suffering from the impacts of large scale development there and at nearby Scaynes Hill.  At CPRE we are all for vibrant local communities in Sussex; but the last thing that this beautiful village and its limited, stretched facilities needs is the loss of its rural setting to yet more housing.

Mid Sussex District local plan review

See: www.cpresussex.org.uk/news/cpre-sussex-submits-further-statements-on-mid-sussex-district-local-plan/