Where is this ‘on street parking’?

From: P Nicolle, Collington Lane West, Bexhill

“On street parking is available in Little Common”.

Yes, that is the claim which RDC used to help justify giving planning approval to redevelop the old Co-op site in Little Common. For full details see Planning Application RR/2018/2876/P.

The plan is for the old Co-op shop and one flat to be replaced by three shops and seven flats, which require 15 parking spaces according to the ESCC “parking calculator”; six spaces will be supplied. But that is no problem as “there is on-street parking available in the locality that can accommodate any overspill”.

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That this is untrue is evident to anyone using the area; already cars are parked on pavements, double yellow lines, and on junctions, and that’s before another nine cars add to the problem.

Should parking regulations ever get enforced in Little Common, these illegally parked cars will also be searching for parking spaces.

Servicing of the three new retail units “would take place from the existing layby to the front of the building on Cooden Sea Road”. Did no one in planning notice the layby is normally full of parked cars?

I asked Cllr B Kentfield, chairman of Rother Planning, about this. He told me he was satisfied with the parking arrangements because, though given years before the Tesco store opened, the previous authorised use of the Co-op site also had a similar overspill of parking requirements. He appeared unconcerned by the advisory note that “both the existing use and the proposed development fail to meet the relevant current standards for parking provision”.

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Cllr Kentfield went on to say that, as he’d given me a reply, he would not answer my question, “Where is the on street parking available in the locality?”

I question whether Rother Planning and ESCC Highways are fit for purpose.

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