Wealden councillors are set to adopt new local planning policies, following a series of referendums held last month.
At a special meeting next Wednesday (October 16), Wealden District Council is expected to formally adopt neighbourhood development plans for Ninfield, Horam and East Hoathly with Halland.
The three neighbourhood plans, which contain policies intended to guide future development in each of the parishes, were put out to referendum in September. All three returned positive results.
In Ninfield, 297 of those who voted were in favour of the neighbourhood plan being used to decide planning applications in the neighbourhood area, while 29 voted against.
The referendum on the neighbourhood plan for East Hoathly with Halland saw 347 votes in favour and nine votes against. For Horam, 518 voted in favour and 33 voted against
In light of the positive results, officers are recommending that each of the plans be “made” by councillors, in other words formally adopted as part of the district’s planning process.
All three neighbourhood plans are wide-ranging documents, which set out policies covering a variety of different subjects. These include the design, layout and housing mix of future developments, as well as guidance on how developers should respond to issues such as flooding and infrastructure pressures.
Each of the three neighbourhood plans also designate parts of the parishes as “local green spaces”. The Horam and East Hoathly with Halland plans both specify that development in these areas would only be supported in “very special circumstances”, while the Ninfield plan sets out expectations for any “development adjacent to these spaces.”
Highly cynical of Wealdens Planning team – they rushed a Reserved Matters urban sized estate item through LAST WEEK, just to beat this announcement… Giving residents just EIGHT DAYS to prepare…. Ignoring all the items that were said at OUTLINE stage to be Reserved Matters, yet those concerns were airbrushed out.. The very next day, Contractors were on site… Makes one question whether the FIVE YEARS our team spent jumping through hoops, keeping pace with changes, amendments, public meetings, referendum back and forth umpteen times were for NOTHING…. We could have done nothing, saved our blood, sweat and tears for no different result. Planning decides and steamrollers councillors into approvals THEY want and allow them to Refuse tiny 2 or 3 house developments, just so they can say they don’t approve “everything”.
You should be nervous Kevin. This is meaningless drivel at best