Spindlewood Drive and Clavering Walk in Bexhill are unsuitable for development

Many pledges were made by the members of the current council when they were bidding for the vacant seat for St Mark’s ward and the West Bexhill County one.

The ones foremost in the minds of the residents of this western extremity of Bexhill concern the two sites outside the development area but currently on the agenda for further consideration by the planning committee.

The pledge was to campaign for the concentration of development of new housing at the North Bexhill area where the land is set aside already.

To many people in Bexhill, Spindlewood Drive and Clavering Walk will be just the names of roads, and roads where the residents object to more houses being built.

In fact these roads are at the western extremity of Bexhill’s development area, because beyond them stretch the Pevensey Levels and flood plain.

The Spindlewood development has been under continuous objection and is still subject to objections by the Environment Agency.

The request for initial acceptance of the Clavering Walk site is being moved forward by the developers at an obscene rate in an attempt to get a provisional answer before the residents can tell the true facts, that this application should never have even been considered in the first place.

Rother District Council’s own (DaSA) plan states that site BX51: Land North of Clavering Walk, is not considered suitable for development.

The site has multiple environmental and on-site constraints, includes being adjacent to international and national conservation sites (Ramsar and SSSI). A significant proportion of the site is subject to flood risk.

It ends; “Therefore this site is not considered suitable for development”.

Surely any sensible planning department would have rejected this proposal at even a suggestion stage, especially as their own Development and Site allocation plan dismissed this as unsuitable.

The Conservative who electioneered to represent this area stated that Little Common was under siege from developers trying to squeeze as many properties as possible into every corner. Yet it seems that at the same time he and his party are going along with this.

Little Common and this whole area has hardly an open space that isn’t or hasn’t had a house, houses or flats built, or to be built on it.

The environment, infrastructure and roads are failing, local shops are closing and all because the council and their planners have tunnel vision on housing and have little or no idea about anything else.

These two developments are totally unnecessary and it’s about time Rother District Council and its Conservative majority acknowledged this, stopped kidding the public whilst stabbing them in the back.

Let’s see what unbelievable excuse you come up with to get out of this one.

Or, you could just turn them both down and honour your promise to the people you are supposed to represent.