I WILL oppose all housing development on greenfield sites in my constituency until such time as all brownfield sites have first been examined for their suitability.

Land like the old Waterworks and the Belmont in Eastbourne should ideally be brought into use first to help solve the area’s housing problems. Until then, developments like the proposed 425 homes in Lower Willingdon need to be shelved.

There could be room for hundreds of homes on the brownfield areas in and around Eastbourne and I’m calling on companies and organisations to stop ‘land banking’ until market conditions are good.

I completely understand that the Eastbourne area needs more housing, but building on greenfield sites when there are plenty of other unused brownfield sites across the town is just wrong. Until these sites are developed, I firmly believe there should be no more greenfield development at all in and around Eastbourne.

This mothballing of land means there are huge areas currently allocated for housing, but there’s little or no sign of any action at the present time. There needs to be genuine action and progress on the brownfield sites that are available, and I will use every opportunity to speak to this effect – it’s brownfields first.

I will be writing to the housing minister and the Local Government Association to this effect. Development is a very tricky issue all over the country and I fully understand that Wealden District Council and Eastbourne Borough Council work together and very much try their best to balance where development goes, and I know just how difficult this is.

But, If we do have brownfield sites, then everything must be done by local authorities to ensure they are developed first and not the beautiful countryside around Eastbourne and Willingdon.