‘Another greenfield saved’ as refusal of 700 homes on outskirts of Eastbourne is upheld

On Thursday (December 9), Wealden District Council’s Planning Committee North (PCN) considered outline proposals to build up to 700 new homes on agricultural land known as Mornings Mill Farm, off of Eastbourne Road in Lower Willingdon.

The scheme was previously considered by the council’s other planning committee — Planning Committee South (PCS) — last month, where councillors voted to refuse the development.

After the vote was cast, however, the application was called-in, as committee chairman Susan Stedman (Con, Horam & Punnetts Town) felt there were no ‘technical reasons’ for refusing the application. 

In a statement read on her behalf during the hearing, Cllr Stedman said: “I took the very difficult decision to call the Mornings Mill site for PCN for review. It was an extremely difficult decision to take and not one I relished, having only done it once before.

“However, the referral-in procedure is there for scrutiny of some cases and in my mind it is for large scale and strategic schemes such as this one. 

“Despite chairing a very full and comprehensive debate, I regrettably felt that PCS arrived at a resolution that had no technical grounds to support it.

“As you will have read in the documents and officer reports, this site has been subject of a lengthy and thorough public inquiry. The outcome of that inquiry is a very strong material consideration.

“We cannot ignore the conclusion of the inspector on the same topics.”   

Over the last few weeks, there had been a great deal of speculation around whether this call-in had been conducted correctly, however PCN was told it had been evaluated and confirmed as valid by senior council officers.

The committee also heard they were not being asked to consider the application afresh, but were instead being asked to scrutinise the original decision reached by PCS. As a result, it had three options available: endorse the decision reached by PCS; confirm the refusal but alter the reasons given; or to reach an entirely different decision (such as approving the scheme).

There were advocates for all three options during the meeting. 

PCS had given three reasons for its refusal. One, that the scheme would be greenfield incursion on land beyond the 1998 development boundary.

Two, that the application had not shown a safe and suitable road access could be provided.

And three, that applicants had not convinced them that the scheme would not increase flood risk elsewhere. 

Officers had advised against all three reasons, saying they did not believe that they could successfully be defended at appeal. 

The largest group on PCN felt these reasons were appropriate, as PCS had reached its conclusion after significant and considered debate, taking into account local knowledge. 

Others felt somewhat differently however, including Cllr Raymond Cade (Con), who argued that the refusal should stand but that PCN should remove the highways reason for refusal. 

Cllr Cade (and some others) argued this was because of technical evidence and the that fact no objections had been raised by East Sussex Highways to proposals.

Cllr Neil Waller (Con) was the sole voice arguing the application be approved, as he felt none of the reasons given by PCS could be defended at appeal.  However, he could not find another to second his motion and there was no vote on it as a result. 

Before the committee reached its decision, officers reiterated their advice that the reasons were unlikely to defendable at appeal and the council could be liable to costs as a result of ‘unreasonable behaviour’.

Officers’ advice had centred around a planning appeal on a previous application to develop the site. That appeal had denied planning permission, but only on narrow grounds of highway safety concerns with the other matters having been considered.

The proposals remained highly controversial with local residents throughout the application, with the council having received more than 800 representations.

As well as objections from local residents and other councils, the scheme had also seen concerns raised by local MPs Caroline Ansell and Maria Caulfield, who have asked for the application to be called in by the secretary of state should it be approved.

The decision was welcomed by Ms Caulfield after the meeting. Writing on Twitter, she said: “Amazing news that Wealden District Council have upheld the decision to refuse permission for Mornings Mill Farm.

“People power and another greenfield site saved in Polegate.”

For further information on the proposals see application reference WD/2021/0174/MEA on the Wealden District Council website.