A housing development on the edge of Wivelsfield Green has been given the go ahead, after a planning inspector overturned a decision by Lewes District Council.

In a decision notice published on Wednesday (September 21), a planning inspector has approved outline proposals to build up to 45 homes on land at South Road. 

Despite an officer recommendation to approve, the scheme had been unanimously refused by Lewes District Council’s planning Committee back in April. It was turned down on the grounds that the scheme would be outside the village’s development boundary and have an ‘unacceptable and detrimental impact’ on the area.  

Both these reasons for refusal were acknowledged by the planning inspector, however they concluded that the harms were outweighed by the district’s relative lack of housing. National planning policy requires a ‘presumption in favour’ of new and sustainable development in these circumstances, they said. 

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In their report, the inspector said: “The ‘tilted’ balance introduced by the presumption in favour of sustainable development requires that planning permission be granted unless the adverse impacts significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits.

“In my judgement, the moderate adverse impacts do not significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits, particularly those relating to increased housing supply, when weighed one against the other. It follows that planning permission should therefore be granted.”

While they overturned the committee’s decision, the inspector did not find that the council had acted ‘unreasonably’ in refusing the scheme. As a result, they did not award costs as sought by the developer.

Even so, the decision has been met with dismay by both local residents and councillors 

Council deputy leader Zoe Nicholson (Green) said: “It is a tragedy that the government’s planning inspector has overruled the views of local people and run roughshod over local democracy.

“This development was rejected by local people, it was rejected by Lewes District Council’s planning [committee] and yet the inspector, in support of the government’s build build agenda, has given this development approval. 

“They are using the government’s standard methodology for the number of houses they want to build on our villages and green spaces, as the key reason for overruling local people.

“We will be calling on Liz Truss to hold to her promise to overhaul the government’s own Planning Inspectorate to stop them overriding local councils and local residents”

For further information on the development see application reference LW/21/0754 on the Lewes District Council website.