Objections to plan for 27 new homes in Sussex village as company says development has been ‘carefully designed’

Greenrock Land and Property wants to build a mix of houses and flats/maisonettes on 1.2 hectares of land at North Common Road, along with access, landscaping, open space and associated infrastructure.

Some 40 percent of the homes will be affordable and the proposal is for 49 car parking spaces as well. People can view the application at planningpa.lewes-eastbourne.gov.uk/online-applications using reference LW/25/0286.

A design and access statement by HAPA Architects said the proposal’s mixture of housing ranges from one-bed affordable flats to five-bed rural detached family houses.

It said: "The design is informed by an important aim to achieve the highest possible quality of private and public spaces, community, and home environment for contemporary rural living, as appropriate to the surrounding architecture and environment.”

But some Wivelsfield residents are worried and have expressed concerns about homes being built in the countryside, the development’s possible impact on wildlife, the risk of over-development in the area and the potential for noise from the site.

One resident said: “There are no adequate infrastructure or services. Residents are already struggling to get GP appointments or place in schools adding more houses will contribute more to this problem. There is already a lot of traffic on north common road and village is starting to turn into town.”

Another said: “Green Road cannot cope with the traffic and the school is already at maximum capacity.”

One resident expressed concern about flooding, saying: “The site area is poorly drained with a preponderance of rushes. During heavy rainfall the pond on the eastern boundary of the site overflows resulting in flooding onto North Common Road. This is only going to be exacerbated if and when the site is developed.”

The ‘No To WivelsTown’ campaign group on Facebook also expressed frustration, saying the plan would place the homes onto the green area directly in front of Manns Farmhouse. The group described this as ‘an original Grade II listed building dating back to the 1600s’ that ‘stands alongside Shoulders and Strood on an area forming a Saxon hamlet and which still has its picturesque duck pond to the north and area of green to the front’.

The group, which aims to stop the ‘historic wealden village’ from becoming a town, said: “A number of mediaeval manor houses in Wivelsfield have been lost over the years, including Berth, Blackmores, Franklands farm, Hole and Scrases, whilst others have been rebuilt or remodelled.”

The HAPA Architects design and access statement has anticipated some of these concerns, saying: “The proposal is designed in great consideration of the surrounding environmental and built characteristics. The overall site layout works in the rural setting with a spacious, low-density scheme. This has allowed for a healthy and sustainable development where homes are well valued within a healthy neighbourhood and green surrounding landscape.”

It continued: “The development is carefully designed in form, landscape, and material to complement and enhance the surrounding rural built and natural environment. It responds to local and national policy, and conforms with the details of each.”

The statement said the new roads would have an ‘organic layout’ with traffic calming measures in place and a number of different streets to allow traffic to split along separate routes.

It said: “As responding to the local community engagement concern, the proposal isn’t looking to change the character of Wivelsfeld Green away from a village. But looks to create a spacious rural neighbourhood.”

“The scheme is landscape led and has taken design stage community feedback seriously,” it added, saying biodiversity net gain had been ‘thoroughly calculated’ and saying that most of the hedgerow is being retained with new native hedgerows proposed within the development. It said dwellings would all have ‘sizeable private gardens’ and amenity spaces, and there would be two public green spaces and a space designed to protect an existing oak tree.

It said: “Benches are provided around a newly created pond. It will provide a new habitat and water for native wildlife and plants.”

The statement said: “The relationship between the Grade II Listed Mann’s Farmhouse and the site, especially the northern edge is an important consideration of the design. The proposal will have a replica barn structure that is the same form and size as the existing agricultural barn onsite.”

It added: “In all, the outlook from Mann’s Farmhouse is not to be harmed, but to be framed with the existing tree screening and a barn structure as per existing. Any potential glimpses caught beyond that are to be of a high quality, big rural house, as fitting with the high asset surroundings.”