50 at plan meeting

Less than 50 members of the public attended the meeting, at Heathfield Community College, the low turnout perhaps reflecting the relatively small impact the Wealden Local Plan is set to have on the town.

Heathfield has been earmarked for around 50 new homes in the Local Plan, compared to 500 allocated for Uckfield.

However, those present did express concern over the potential loss of industrial land which new housing could bring.

The new dwellings are planned to be built on an industrial patch of land unused for more than a decade, on Ghyll Road. The site is proposed for mixed housing and business use.

A business area on Burwash Road is proposed for redevelopment in an attempt to offset the loss of industrial land at Ghyll Road.

The chairman of Monday's meeting, Cllr Jack Gore, said: 'The land at Ghyll Road hasn't worked out very well as an industrial site. We feel that perhaps by putting some houses on it as well we might also get some industrial use out of it. It's a mixed site.'

After the meeting, Richard Strange, of the parish council and the town's regeneration partnership, said that development on an existing industrial site was acceptable only if a similar amount of land could be guaranteed for business elsewhere in the town.