Decision due on replacement East Sussex rural home
A bid to redevelop a rural home near Warbleton are set to go in front of Wealden councillors.
On Thursday (July 16), Wealden District Council’s Minors Planning Committee is set to consider proposals for Matellows Cottage in Middle Lane.
The applicants, Mr M Lower and Ms E Prior, are seeking permission to demolish an existing dwelling, garage and outbuildings and replace these with a four-bedroom self-built family home.
The scheme has seen support from the local community, including Warbleton Parish Council, which says the replacement dwelling would be “an aesthetic improvement to the site”.
The scheme had been on track for delegated refusal by council planning officers who said the scheme would be in conflict with a planning policy covering replacement rural dwellings. This policy, known as DC18, requires properties to be ‘comparable in size, scale and character’ to what they replace.
Officers said the proposed property would be “excessively large”.
The report sets out how the existing dwelling — a single storey two-bedroom cottage — only has a floorspace of 61.5 square metres. The proposed replacement would have a floorspace of 249 square metres — representing an increase of 305 per cent.
By including the floorspace of the garages and outbuildings, this baseline floorspace would increase to 125.5 square metres. Officers say the replacement would be almost double the size of the existing development.
The report also links the proposals to a previous attempt to redevelop the site, which concluded with an appeal being dismissed by a planning inspector last October.
Council planning officers say the current proposals need to show how it overcomes the previous reasons for refusal and has not adequately done so.
Officers had been set to refused planning permission under delegated powers.
The scheme is being referred to the committee instead as a result of an intervention by ward councillor Greg Collins.
In a statement explaining his position, Cllr Collins said: “I do not believe that this application is in sufficient conflict with policy DC18, concerned primarily with protecting the rural nature of the district, to warrant a refusal under delegated powers.
“DC18, and the criteria within it, dates from the last century and the weight to apply is debatable. Large homes are not unusual in the wider locality and the proposed size of this home would sit appropriately on its plot.”
If approved the proposed building would be a part-double, part-single storey dwelling as a result of it being built into a slope.
For further information see application reference WD/2026/0878/F on the Wealden District Council website.