Controversial plans to build up to 400 new homes in Newhaven have been green-lit by Lewes councillors.
On Wednesday, December 4, Lewes District’s Council’s planning committee approved outline proposals to develop land at Harbour Heights — a scheme which involves the demolition and redevelopment of the Quarry Road Industrial Estate, as well as plans for house-building on greenfield land to its west.
The application, submitted by Trafalgar Group Ltd, had only been seeking outline permission, with all issues other than access requiring further planning consent at a later stage.
This outline permission would cover the creation of two access routes via Quarry Road and Court Farm Road, as well as in-principle approval to build up to 400 homes and to create 1,477 square metres of commercial floorspace.
Despite its scale, the development is not guaranteed to include any affordable housing. The committee heard this was due to the ‘abnormal costs’ associated with the site, as a result of its topography and an element of contaminated land.
The lack of affordable housing was a common cause for concern among those who objected to the scheme. Objectors had also raised concerns about the scheme’s impact on the ecology and character of the area, as well as its potential impact on Newhaven’s infrastructure.
In all, the council received 366 individual letters of objection, as well as a petition of objection signed by 321 people.
Some of these concerns were voiced during the meeting by Lewes MP James MacCleary, who had been speaking in his capacity as the ward councillor for Newhaven South.
Lib Dem Mr MacCleary said: “Newhaven is in desperate need of new affordable homes, some of which have been delivered in recent years directly by this council and in partnership in developments like Stafford Park, which others may not like but has actually been a very successful affordable housing development.
“However, this development does not help in that regard and indeed many of the larger homes with views of the sea are likely to be very expensive indeed.
“The lack of affordable housing alone should be reason for refusal. The positive weighting attributed to the social benefit in this report is massively overstated and the committee should take their own view on that as grounds for refusal.”
In response to these criticisms, officers said affordable housing would be kept under review as the scheme progresses and the actual build costs and sales prices could be taken into account. This could result in affordable housing being added into the scheme at a later date, officers said.
Objectors had also raised concerns about the development‘s impact on infrastructure and ecology, as well as its impact on business based within the Quarry Road Industrial Estate.
But the committee also heard how the 20-hectare site, which sits between Gibbon Road and Court Farm Road, has been allocated for a mixed-use development within the Lewes Local Plan.
The committee heard how this allocation weighed heavily in the scheme’s favour, although officers also said strict conditions would be required to address certain concerns, particularly those around flooding and drainage.
These conditions included one requiring an ‘appropriate framework for surface water management to be accepted by the Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA) and Natural England’ before approval be granted.
While the committee had mixed views on the proposals, the outline application did ultimately gain planning permission, although this resolution required the committee’s chairman Lucy Agace to use her casting vote to break a tie.
Cllr Agace said: “This is in the local plan already and I think we have sufficient support from our officers so that we can come back with a reserved matters and hopefully improve the design, the quantity of houses; that would be something that I would be keen to look at, so I am going to vote to approve it.”
Illustrative plans indicate how these 400 homes could be made up of: 214 one and two-bedroom apartments; 44 two-bedroom houses; 12 three-bedroom houses; 121 four-bedroom houses and nine five-bedroom houses.
For further information on the proposals see application reference LW/23/0380 on the Lewes District Council website.
