Plans to build 40 homes in Burgess Hill have been approved, despite issues with flooding in a neighbouring development.
The application from Jones Homes (Southern) Ltd, for land to the rear of 96 Folders Lane, was given the nod by Mid Sussex District Council’s planning committee on Thursday (December 5).
The council received 89 letters objecting to the plans, with concerns raised including flooding and the impact on wildlife.
The new homes will form phase two of the Folders Grove development. Phase one has already been built, and a link road will connect the two sites.
Flooding was high on the list of concerns from some councillors, especially given the amount suffered by residents who moved into the first phase of homes.
Janice Henwood (Lib Dem, Burgess Hill Franklands) asked whether the drainage problems at phase one could be corrected before building started on phase two.
While chairman Gary Marsh (Con, Ardingly, Balcombe & Turners Hill) said he would like to say ‘yes’, the planning officer said there were ‘no drainage reasons’ to turn down the application.
He added: “I appreciate issues have been highlighted about phase one but they are matters that need to be resolved within the planning permission associated with phase one.
“This is a separate application – I appreciate that it links in terms of the access road to the existing development, but this is a planning permission in its own right.”
Mr Marsh said the council needed to ‘put some pressure’ on the developer to take action to sort out the problems.
He added: “We need to thrash this out. We need to get some proper remedial work done on phase one – but that shouldn’t be the reason to refuse phase two.”
Mike Kennedy (Lib Dem, Burgess Hill Dunstall) said: “We’re dealing with the same developer. There must have been conditions attached to that planning permission when it was granted, relating to drainage, which don’t seem to be being enforced.
“It doesn’t fill us with any great confidence in dealing with a similar application from the same developer.”
While acknowledging the fact that this was a separate application, Mr Kennedy added: “It does leave one with a heavy heart having to vote in favour or against an application when you’ve seen what’s gone before and what the current situation is.”
The application was approved by nine votes to zero with one abstention.
The site was allocated in the council’s development plan for 40 homes.
Twelve of the homes on the development will be classed as affordable – one one-bedroom wheelchair accessible flat, two one-bedroom and three two-bedroom flats, five two-bedroom houses and a three-bedroom house.
The rest will be made up of two two-bedroom, 17 three-bedroom, and nine four-bedroom houses.
To view the application, log on to pa.midsussex.gov.uk and search for DM/23/0532.
