Developer accused of ‘taking the Michael’ over Punnetts Town housing scheme

On Thursday (November 5), Wealden District Council approved proposals to build six houses on land off of Battle Road in Punnetts Town, together with a new road access. 

Known as the Cadence site, the area has a complicated planning history, with a patchwork of other undecided applications on the surrounding land.

These include both an outline application to build up to 24 houses (which has been on the council’s books since 2016) as well as two more recent applications for smaller developments covering part of the same adjoining site.

This drew strong criticism from ward councillor Bob Bowdler (Con), who said: “What has happened is, the applicant has put in multiple applications, in my view, to avoid an affordable element, which is unfortunate. 

“I’d like to send a message to the applicant; to be honest with Wealden officers and local residents. They have caused a lot of angst locally, which need not have occurred, because of these multiple applications. 

“They want 20 plus units on this land, split into smaller applications circumventing the need for an affordable contribution. 

“My message is that planning should not simply be about profit but also about community and the moral obligation on developers to provide affordable housing on all major applications.

“It should not be about avoiding your responsibility, which appears to be the intention here, albeit using legal means.”

If the scheme had been put forward in one go, Cllr Bowdler argued, the developer would have to build or pay for affordable housing under national planning rules. The smaller schemes, being for fewer than 10 houses, made them exempt.

Other councillors joined Cllr Bowdler in criticising the developer’s approach, with his fellow ward councillor Susan Stedman saying it had caused “confusion and worry” for residents.  

Cllr Neil Cleaver (Lib Dem, Hailsham North East) put it more simply, saying the application was ‘taking the Michael’ and should be refused until brought back as a single scheme.

“Is that a policy reason, taking the Michael?”, asked committee chairman Johanna Howell. 

“Yes”, replied Cllr Cleaver.

Officers, however, put forward a different explanation of the circumstances surrounding the multiple applications, saying a larger one-off scheme had not been deemed acceptable so far.

The council’s head of planning Stacey Robbins said: “The suggestion that there is some underhand tactics from the developer is not quite correct. 

“The oldest undetermined application on this site is the largest of the schemes. It is from 2016, so it has been with us for a considerable length of time We haven’t moved that scheme anywhere near the committee, which I think tells it’s own story. 

“We are not prepared to support as officers that amount of extensive growth on this particular site, which is sensitive and in the AONB, otherwise it would have been brought to committee well before now.”

Moreover, officers said, the application in front of the committee already had outline planning permission and needed to be considered on its own merits.

Despite the disquiet of members around future developments, the committee did not feel there were grounds to refuse the application itself.

While approved there was discussion of adding a condition preventing the site from being used as access for future developments. This was not adopted in light of officers’ advice.

There was also a prolonged debate on whether the committee could add a condition requiring all future applications on the adjoining site to come to the committee.  This was also not adopted due to officers’ concerns, but Mr Robbins gave assurances that he would ensure delegated powers were not used on these applications.

For further information on the proposals see application reference WD/2020/0724/RM on the Wealden District Council website.