Roads hold up plan

Work on a blueprint for future development within Wealden has come to a standstill because the district's roads aren't up to carrying all the new traffic envisaged.

The Wealden Local Plan, which covers the period from 2004-2011, should already have been published but it is now unlikely to be seen until the end of the year.

Towns and parishes across the area have been anxiously awaiting its arrival to see how it would affect them. But the plan has fallen at the last hurdle with the Highways Agency raising major queries about road links for new housing estates.

Wealden has to find green field sites for 3,300 new houses within the period of the plan and so far the bulk have been earmarked for the Hailsham and Polegate areas.

Uckfield, too, was originally singled out to take a hefty share but then it was revealed that only 500 new homes could be built in the town because of limited space at the community college.

But now another re-think has been ordered, with officers once again asking whether there's scope for north Wealden to take a bigger share of the allocation.

The main problem in the south is the A27 road which serves the Hailsham and Polegate area. The Highways Agency says that would need major improvements before being able to take extra traffic.

There is a possibility of the road being upgraded as a result of the Government's South Coast Corridor Multi-Modal Study but, with the outcome of that unknown, a question mark hangs over the viability of the Local Plan and its publication has been delayed to allow further studies to take place.

Even Wealden councillors have not yet seen the plan but moves are afoot to arrange a seminar for them where officers can explain the proposals.

Then the plan would go before the council's two development control committees before finally being made public.

A timetable for the whole procedure has still to be drawn up but officers have warned that publication of the plan is unlikely to happen until the end of the year.

The position was explained to a meeting of the council's executive last Wednesday and Cllr Raymond Parsons, who chaired the meeting, said he was dismayed by what was happening. He said he had read the officer's report explaining the position 'with amazement'.