Councillors approve next step of major housing scheme

On Thursday (March 26), Wealden District Council’s Majors Planning Committee discussed a reserved matters application linked to the 360-home Park Farm development in New Road.

The scheme had secured outline planning permission in October 2023, meaning the principle of development on the site has been established.

Through this most recent application, developer Bellway Homes Ltd (Kent) had been seeking approval of details relating to the final design of the development, including its layout, scale, appearance and landscaping.

The committee heard how planning officers still hoped to secure changes to some of the design elements through further negotiation with the applicant.

They had recommended approval subject to the applicant submitting further amended plans.

A report to the committee had said amended plans would have been expected to: remove/revise the design of several garages; provide extra disabled parking spaces; reposition some buildings to fit better on the site; and remove a children’s play area, in order to provide a wildlife buffer.

But the committee also heard how revised designs had been submitted shortly before the committee meeting, which officers said had addressed most of the outstanding points of contention.

Only a few matters of concern remained, officers said, including the proposed design of “defensible semi-private spaces” — a term which refers like front gardens and courtyards

In agreeing to approve, the committee authorised officers to seek to resolve their remaining concerns before granting planning permission.

For further information see application reference WD/2025/1954/MRM on the Wealden District Council website.

While the committee agreed to approve the scheme, some concerns were raised around the highways impact of the development in connection with Park Farm West — a similarly-sized sister housing development, which also connects to New Road.

The committee’s concerns stemmed from what officers described as a “tolerated breach” of a legal agreement tied to the neighbouring housing development.

The committee — initially through comments submitted by ward councillor David White (Ind) — had heard how the outline approval of the nearby scheme had been accompanied by a section 106 legal agreement.

This legal agreement prevents any home from being occupied until the off-site highway works get built out — these include works to upgrade the junction of Featherbed Lane, Park Road and New Road (the A271) through the creation of a new roundabout.

While this roundabout has not yet been built, officers confirmed some properties at Park Farm West have become occupied.

In his comments, Cllr White had noted how a similar requirement is part of another legal agreement linked to Park Farm East and had called on the committee to ensure the council was strict in its application of the agreement.

Officers said they were aware of the situation at Park Farm West, but were ‘tolerating’ the breach in light of advice from East Sussex Highways.

The council’s head of planning Stacey Robins said: “In October last year, there were a handful of occupations on the western site … and at that point East Sussex colleagues were of the view that the number of occupations, without the off-site highways works, had not reached a threshold where the associated traffic movements would cause a highways safety issue of a severity to justify us stepping in and serving enforcement action to prevent any further works.

“That remains the case even though there have been some additional occupations and we are actively speaking, on a weekly basis, to East Sussex colleagues. If East Sussex tells us, me, that threshold has been reached and breached, we will stop that development; we will prevent any further occupations.

“But obviously they are the highway authority, they are the experts in relation to highway safety and at the moment they were content that threshold of severity and safety had not been reached. If we pass that, it is a different situation and we will step in to prevent any further occupations of dwellings on that adjacent site.”

But Mr Robins also stressed that the lack of a roundabout being built was not the result of the developer refusing to carry out the works. He said the developer, who he did not name but the LDRS understands to be Taylor Wimpey, was “engaging” with local authorities, but faced some temporary barriers preventing the works from moving ahead.

Mr Robins also expressed a view that the off-site works would likely be completed ‘long’ before the first homes at Park Farm East could be ready for occupation. If this was not the case, he said, then the council still had the power to prevent further occupation of either or both developments.