Patcham Court Farm Royal Mail development

The CPRE Sussex director has written to Brighton & Hove Planning Committee ahead of the planning committee meeting on 4 September to raise concerns about the Royal Mail proposals for Patcham Court Farm (planning application BH2022/02232).

The director made the following points:

It is clearly a difficult decision to make, but we would urge you to consider whether the effects on the city’s drinking water have, even at this late stage, been adequately addressed – alongside the impacts of the development on wildlife and the South Downs.

We very much understand the appeal of the proposal, not least because of the potential to reduce the number of traffic movements from large and polluting vehicles within the congested city centre – and the potential of the vacated current site for alternative uses, in particular to provide much-needed affordable housing as well as employment space. These are goals that we would fundamentally support in principle, if the right site were to be found for relocation.

However, we have always been – and remain – deeply concerned about the potential impacts of the current proposal on the precious urban/rural fringes of the city, and in particular its impacts on nature, the national park and especially water.

As such, we submitted an objection to the scheme on the basis of:

– the negative impact on biodiversity, contrary to Policies CP10 and DM37, with loss of trees and other habitat, and the failure to adequately provide onsite Biodiversity Net Gain, in a manner entirely contrary to the thrust of BNG policy.

– the negative impact on the setting of the South Downs National Park, contrary to policies SA4 and SA5, and the risks of light pollution further damaging the status of the SDNP International Dark Sky Reserve, contrary to policy DM40

– the risks to the water environment and its ecology, contrary to policy DM42, given the siting of the development in relation to the local aquifer

– the risks of contributing additionally to flooding in the high-risk Patcham area, contrary to CP11.

We are not convinced that these issues have been addressed, or that they can be adequately addressed through conditions; there is simply too much being packed into an environmentally-sensitive site.

We would encourage you to reject the application in its current form.