Resident wins latest round in bowls battle

Anne-Marie Loader, of Knole Road, lives only 25 metres away from the proposed redevelopment.

She questioned a decision in July last year by Secretary of State John Denham who issued a "screening direction" that no Environmental Impact Assessment was required in advance of building 41 homes, new outdoor bowling green, clubhouse and indoor bowls rink.

Now Mr Justice Stadlen has given Mrs Loader permission to challenge that decision in a fresh judicial review hearing.

This will delay the second planning inquiry which has been placed on hold and stifle the developer's hopes of starting work any time soon.

Anne-Marie told the Observer she was "delighted" that the "long fight" to save the bowling green had moved on.

She said: "I first became involved in 2003 when a packed public meeting was held following a planning application to build houses on the site, with a back-to-back application involving Gullivers Bowls Club itself moving to land designated for sports in Turkey Road.

"At that time the club publicly rejected offers of financial help from the surrounding community which wanted the club to remain at its present, and original, home.Fortunately that application was refused by the council.

"When I studied many years ago for a law degree which included Land Use and Development, I had no idea how useful it would prove to be.

"Coupled with 12 years' post-graduate research experience, I found myself piecing together the jig-saw when the next planning application for this site was submitted in 2006 '“ this time by Churchill Retirement Living wanting to build one four-storey block and one three-storey block of retirement flats, right on the Knole Road frontage.

"I recognised that this would damage the setting of the Victorian Grade II listed flats immediately opposite the site, and that the site was technically a 'greenfield' site because it has only ever had a building on it which is ancillary to sport.

"It had previously been a croquet club.

"I personally challenged the planning inspector's subsequent appeal decision on technical legal grounds, which successfully quashed that Inspector's decision. The developers (Churchill), Rother District Council and the Secretary of State (represented by the Planning Inspectorate) had all failed to adequately consider how the large blocks of retirement flats and the partially sunken indoor bowls rinks - very close to neighbours' boundaries - would adversely affect the surrounding buildings and their inhabitants.

"A full Environmental Impact Assessment is required to look into the effects on not just asbestos contamination but also flooding, highways and traffic, loss of light and privacy, the increased risk of subsidence and the effect on flora and fauna in the immediate area.

"I am extremely lucky to be represented by one of the UK's leading authorities on environmental law, and although a Judicial Review has been granted we have already lodged an appeal to widen its scope. He has expressed great surprise that the developers were encouraged to lodge an application for 'full' planning permission when an 'outline' planning application would have been more appropriate for the site, and indeed is determined if necessary to take this case to the European Court.

"Meanwhile, four years after Churchill's original application, the situation is back to how it was when Rother's councillors voted against granting permission."

Christine Madeley of Gullivers Action Group commented that because of possible asbestos contamination local residents now had health worries as well as concern about their property.

She said: "It is well known that the water table in the area is not very deep, and flooding is therefore a very real concern if the natural drainage of the bowling greens is reduced.

"Subsidence is another very real threat, especially having regard to the size of the proposed development and the very close proximity of other property in this town centre location. The site is surrounded by houses, flats, rest homes and nursing homes - so a class action on these grounds against the developer, the council and even Gullivers itself would be very interesting..."