Garden guardians welcome new planning legislation

Cllr Brian Kentfield, chairman of Rother District Council's planning committee, said Bexhill's character had been threatened in the past by housing developments in gardens, which have been classified as brownfield sites since the 1980s.

This put them in the same planning category as ex-factory and railway land - prime spots for housing developers.

Cllr Kentfield said too often decisions made by Rother's planning committee to protect spaces in Bexhill were overturned on appeal by the Planning Inspectorate.

Cllr Joy Hughes, also a member of the planning committee, agreed. "It rather defeats us and takes away our authority to say what we want to happen in our district."

But on Wednesday Communities minister Greg Clark pledged to hand power to local authorities around Britain.

He said: "I am changing the classification of garden land so councils and communities no longer have their decisions constantly overruled but have the power to work with industry to shape future development that is appropriate for their area."

He promised to re-classify gardens and reform a host of planning guidelines with the aim of handing power back to local planning committees.

Cllrs Kentfield and Hughes both remembered sites in Bexhill where this form of development damaged local character, but chose not to name them.

"This means we should be able to do planning as the local residents want us to," said Cllr Kentfield. "Some of these cases prove to be acceptable.

"If you have got a relatively small frontage that's acceptable. But in other cases it causes problems, including with parking space."

Cllr Hughes said: "I dislike it intensly when another property is squashed into a garden. I am awfully grateful. We will have more control."