Eton proposal 'still in the mix' despite 95 per cent of Lewes sites rejected

The interim Land Availability Assessment looks at where developers could potentially build houses - the authority needs to show that it can meet its housing target of 782 homes, which has been calculated using the standard national methodology set by government.

Last year the Express reported how landowners had been invited to submit possible locations for development, in a bid to be included in the council's new Local Plan.

Submissions included the hugely unpopular proposal for 3,000 homes on land in East Chiltington owned by Eton College by developer Welbeck Land.Lewes District Council explained at the time that just because a landowner submits a site for consideration, it did not mean it automatically got included in the Local Plan.

Today, Zoe Nicholson, Green Party Councillor, and Leader of Lewes District Council said:“We are instructed by Government to use their “ Standard Method” to calculate our housing target and only after demonstrating through the exhaustive and resource intensive preparation of the new Local Plan, is it possible to argue for a realistic number.

"Our team has completed the next stage in the process and the good news is that we have already rejected 95 per cent of the sites put forward so far.”

However there is still much work to do to assess the other schemes and until the work has been done the Council cannot say for certain whether any or all of the schemes left will be included in the Plan in 2023, she continued.

A spokesperson for Lewes District Council confirmed one of the remaining five per cent was the Eton proposal, however they stressed this was 'simply because assessment of it has not yet started'.

Meanwhile James MacCleary, Lib Dem Councillor and Deputy Leader of the Council raised concerns - shared by many councils - about the Government's method of calculating housing numbers.

He said:“We do not agree with the Government assessment methodology. It is utterly unrealistic and fails to consider the real capacity of the District for new homes. We alongside, Newick and the 10 other parishes have written to Mr Gove to request correction to this methodology.”

Chris Collier, Labour Councillor and Cabinet member for People and Performance: “The planning framework is broken, it is deliberately designed to pitch village against coastal town, where our officers are forced to look for every scrap of green and brown field site to build to a target that no one believes is possible. The Government promised that the white paper would change the system and favour brownfield sites, and so far this is an empty promise."