Bexhill College in sports field row

A neighbour of Bexhill College is "incensed" that development is taking place on the grounds without planning permission.

Don Ward, of Callum's Walk, claims work started on a tennis court but Rother District Council planning department knew nothing about this.

He and several other residents complained and now he says an RDC enforcement team has informed the college that planning permission must be applied for within 28 days and details of the work submitted.

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"Other neighbours from other roads are getting concerned about this as well," he told the Observer this week.

Mr Ward says that at first Bexhill College insisted that this was simply drainage work taking place but this was not the case.

Now the field has been raised at one end by 1.5 metres and flattened out for the court to be laid down.

"Work started at the beginning of last week and my immediate concern is to what they were doing. By Wednesday it was obvious they weren't just tidying up, or cutting grass or cleaning up...my objection is that Bexhill College is going ahead with building without proper permission, and not even found out first what they are allowed to do.

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"My personal feelings are that we should have all been consulted prior to even a planning application, because all the interested parties should at least have been made aware of what Bexhill College wanted to do. To me this would have been common courtesy and respect because we all live around and adjacent to the field.

"There is an existing order on that bit of land to say they are not allowed to build on it... whether they will ignore that as well I don't know."

Mr Ward says that when work was done in the past vibrations from heavy machinery caused the ground in his garden to crack and the fencing had to be reinforced.

"The field is now raised up by 1.5 metres at one end, so suddenly it is more high up and visible to us."

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He added: "I don't like the way they have just ridden roughshod over everyone. It would not have been hard to send out letters informing us of what is going on... it seems silly to create such antagonism."

In response college principal Karen Hucker said: "We are not building any new structures.

"At the moment the works are levelling out the playing area to improve drainage - the ground was damaged during the hard winter.

"We do need planning permission for the tennis courts which is being applied for. We will also be putting fencing up at a later date around the pitch which planning is being applied for too.

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"These facilities are replacing an existing basketball practice area and are being put in place for the benefit of our students and the community as a whole.

"They will add to the overall learning experience and encourage more students to become involved in sport while at the college.

"We encourage our students to lead healthy, active lifestyles and these facilities will only help that aim."

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