Pevensey Levels must be protected

Residents in Little Common, Cooden and West Bexhill will recently have received a promotional leaflet from Bellway Homes Ltd concerning a planned development on the meadow at the end of Clavering Walk and adjacent to the Pevensey Levels. The leaflet invites comments on the proposals for no fewer than 78 dwellings crammed into the site, and I would encourage as many people as possible across Bexhill to let Bellway know their views.

The leaflet claims that the proposed development will have no adverse effect on the integrity of the Pevensey Levels – one of the most important wetlands in Britain, and a habitat subject to European and International protection. But no evidence is presented for this view – indeed, no evidence is yet possible as the ground water in the meadow will be monitored for at least another three months. Bellway promise “at least six forms of treatment” before surface water from the site would pass into the Cole Stream and feed into the Levels, but no details have been offered.

This is despite the condition in the Outline Planning Permission that Bellway has to show beyond reasonable scientific doubt that the Pevensey Levels will be protected ‘in perpetuity’. This means rigorous analysis and testing, not the honeyed words of a property company desperate to move onto their next project.

The proposal for this new housing estate on the very fringe of the Levels has never been before the Rother Planning Committee, having been rejected by officials but then endorsed by a planning inspector following an appeal by Bellway. Local people have until now been denied their say. There is a Bellway sponsored website: (www.landatclaveringwalk.co.uk) where this can be done.

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