Crawley Borough Council has approved the budget for a development of six affordable homes in Tilgate.
The plan for the former youth centre site, in Shackleton Road, was discussed during a meeting of the full council on Wednesday (October 16).
If it receives approval from the planning committee, six flats will be built on the site – making it the council’s third ‘own build’, fully certified Passivhaus scheme.
Ian Irvine, cabinet member for housing, said that, while the development was small, it helped with the council’s housing and climate objectives.
Mr Irvine said he hoped the scheme would reach the planning stage ‘sooner rather than later’ – though he recognised that there would be some objections.
Those objections were highlighted by Conservative leader Duncan Crow.
While supporting the idea of developing the run-down site, he felt the council hadn’t got things quite right.
Mr Crow told the meeting that, of the 230 Tilgate residents who took part in a public consultation, more than two-thirds were opposed to the scheme.
The main concern was that the problems with on-street parking in the area would be made worse as four spaces would be lost.
He added that, while the scheme would be within the council’s parking standards, history had shown that those standards often didn’t reflect the reality of the number of vehicles people owned.
He cited the Pembroke Park development, in Three Bridges, which needed overflow parking.
Mr Crow added: “I’m not opposed to development of this site. We do need affordable housing – but just because there is a need for affordable housing, it doesn’t mean that we should have it at any cost.”
With work to appoint a contractor not yet complete, the actual amount to be spent on the development was not shared.
But the meeting was told that the transfer of land from the General Fund to the Housing Revenue Account was valued at £175,000.
