An 18 million plans to build 36 homes on land next to the Queen Victoria Hospital, in East Grinstead, have been approved by Mid Sussex District Council.
The application, by Macar Partnerships (QVH) Ltd, based in Sutton, was given the nod by the council’s District Planning Committee on Thursday (19 June).
Permission had already been granted for 30 homes in January last year but a new application was submitted after the land was sold for £2 million in July. The district plan allocated 40 homes on the site.
The council received just shy of 100 responses to two consultations. People were concerned about the loss of trees and green space, over-development and road safety – especially along Blackwell Farm Road.
Most of the trees on the site have already been cleared, in line with the earlier planning permission.
One speaker raised safety concerns, saying that, without them, the pond on the site – once a quarry – would cause subsidence and collapse of ‘anything built within 10m of it’.
She told the committee that, should they approve the plans, hundreds of residents would be giving them “a Paddington hard stare, because you clearly would have forgotten your manners and who you actually represent”.
Another speaker asked what had changed since 2006, when plans for 80 homes were refused, including on highway safety grounds? She said that the traffic situation was “twice as bad” now.
A report to the committee said that issues such as stability would be addressed as part of the building regulations process and would be the responsibility of the applicant.
In the end, the committee agreed with the recommendation of planning officers and approved the plans by 11 votes to one.
Conservative councillor Dick Sweatman, who represents East Grinstead Herontye, said that he was “a little bit disappointed” by the suggestion that committee members weren’t representing their residents.
The committee had to work to the planning rules, no matter how frustrating they may sometimes be, he said.
If they didn’t, then any decision to refuse an application was likely to be overturned on appeal – a costly process. This was even more likely given that a previous application had already been approved.
Councillor Sweatman said: “From a planning policy point of view, you can’t go back and change things that have already been approved. I’d like to but we can’t.”
The scheme will be made up of four one-bedroom, eight two-bedroom, 18 three-bedroom and six four-bedroom homes.
Access will be via Oakfield Way and 15 of the homes – or 40 per cent – would be classed as “affordable”.
