A controversial housing development between Newick and North Chailey has been approved at appeal.
In a decision published earlier this month, a planning inspector has approved proposals to build 21 homes on a green field site to the west of Oxbottom Lane, overturning a decision by Lewes District Council.
The council had refused the scheme in April last year due to concerns around its location and its impact on the ‘rural character’ of the area. Officers, who had recommended approval at the time, had warned these reasons were unlikely to hold up at appeal, given the council’s housing targets and out-of-date local plan.
This advice proved correct, with the inspector judging the committee’s concerns not to be sufficient grounds to overcome the ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development’ set out in national planning rules.
In their decision notice, the inspector said: “Overall, the limited adverse impacts associated with the conflict with the development plan due to the site’s location outside the planning boundaries do not significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits, when assessed against the policies in the [National Planning Policy] Framework taken as a whole.
“The proposal therefore benefits from the presumption in favour of sustainable development and this indicates that permission should be granted.”
The council’s planning committee had considered the application three times before deciding to refuse. The scheme had actually initially been approved at a planning committee meeting in February 2023, but was then brought back for a ‘fresh resolution’ in March of the same year as a result of a procedural dispute.
During the March meeting, the committee (formed of a slightly different group of councillors than in February) opted to defer their decision as they were unhappy with, what where then, unresolved issues about the site’s drainage arrangements.
The application then came back in April last year following an update from East Sussex County Council, which (as Lead Local Flood Authority) confirmed it was content for the final drainage arrangements to be worked out through planning conditions.
While the inspector noted how these multiple meetings may have been ‘frustrating’ for the developer, they also refused to award costs as they did not consider the council to have acted ‘unreasonably’.
In their decision notice, the planning inspector said: “I have no doubt that the delays involved in obtaining a decision from the council were unfortunate and frustrating for the applicant. However, procedures and processes adopted by a planning committee for determining planning applications are generally a matter for the authority within the context of local government accountability.
“I am not aware if the applicant pursued the matter of how the committee was constituted via the council’s formal complaints procedure or whether this has since been pursued with the ombudsman. However, any potential matters of maladministration are indeed best addressed through those routes rather than through me.”
The inspector went on to say that the committee’s reason for refusal was also not unreasonable.
The inspector said: “Whilst the eventual decision taken by the planning committee was contrary to the advice of officers, it was the right of the planning committee to make this decision and refuse the planning application. The reason for refusal refers to the location of the site being outside of a settlement and the harm that would be caused to the landscape.
“These concerns were reasonably straightforward and easy to understand. Indeed, I too concluded that the site was outside of a settlement. The council’s statement may not have been supported by professional landscape evidence and it was limited in its discussion of the landscape issue, but that does not in itself invalidate the concerns that were raised.”
For further information see application reference LW/21/1000 on the Lewes District Council website.
