500 homes plan revealed

Barratt Developments has released plans for 500 homes, retail space, workshops and community buildings on land near the A22 bypass in Maresfield.

The company has approached Wealden District Council to ask if an 'environmental screening' report would be needed if the proposal was submitted as a formal planning application.

Barratt has told Wealden the the development 'may give rise to significant effects on the environment by virtue of factors such as its location and size'.

The development would cover 22 hectares of agricultural land at Mill House Farm, Maresfield.

A spokesman for the council said this was very early stages of the application and the council would be looking into it to see if other agencies, for example the Highways Agency, needed to be consulted.

He said: 'The site has not been allocated for development in our current non-statutory local plan and neither has it been mentioned in our issues and options consultation.'

News of the application comes just days before the start of a public inquiry in Uckfield into three separate house building applications on the outskirts of the town. Together they would add around 1,200 homes to Uckfield.