Campaigners frustrated as controversial homes scheme is deferred rather than refused

Last month Lewes District Council’s planning committee considered an application seeking outline permission to build up to 140 homes to the west of Broyle Side on 16 hectares of land associated with Howells Bank Farm.

The applicant, Catesby Strategic Land, was seeking to establish the principle of building housing on the site. The council received 583 letters of objection as well as a petition signed by 127 people.

Campaigners say the planning committee discussion made clear that the application is flawed and believe it should have been rejected outright. During the meeting, one committee member stated: “We are desperately trying to make this work and it just doesn’t on so many levels.”

RAGE says the comment perfectly captures the reality of an inappropriate development being forced onto an unsuitable rural site because of unrealistic government housing targets.

“This application should have been refused outright,” said a spokesperson for RAGE. “These ridiculous housing targets are forcing developments onto completely unsuitable sites, regardless of the consequences for local communities, infrastructure, and the environment.”

The group says the scheme would cause severe and irreversible harm to the landscape and rural character of the Broyleside area, while worsening already serious flooding risks, dangerous highways access, and pressure on local services. 

RAGE also highlighted Ringmer’s worsening sewage crisis, warning that the village’s ageing infrastructure is already unable to cope with existing demand, with sewage pollution continuing to impact the River Ouse.

“Approving hundreds more homes before these issues are resolved is completely reckless,” the spokesperson said.

The campaign group also warned about the environmental destruction linked to large-scale development on open countryside, including habitat loss, biodiversity decline, and the erosion of Ringmer’s dark skies.

“We are already one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, yet developments like this continue to destroy valuable countryside and wildlife habitats in the name of ‘economic growth’,” the spokesperson continued. “This senseless destruction of the environment has to end. It will cost us dearly in the very foreseeable future”

RAGE criticised the credibility of the claimed sustainable travel routes for new residents.  "The proposed improvements to footways and cycle tracks are piecemeal and stop far from the village centre, primary school, and the existing cycle path to Lewes. Howells Bank Farm is not a sustainable location".  

“There is a complete lack of joined-up thinking in the current planning system,” the group added. “None of these speculative developments are actually addressing the real issue — the shortage of social housing and genuinely affordable homes for local people. Instead, they are creating even greater long-term crises around highways, sewage pollution, flooding, pressure on public services, and the loss of agricultural land at a time when food security should be a national priority.”

“Decisions are being driven by developer profits rather than the interests of local communities or the environment or the long term future. Residents are increasingly cynical about a system that is deeply flawed, with villages like Ringmer left to deal with the consequences.”

“At what point does common sense prevail?”

Lewes District Council planning officers have recommended the scheme be approved, citing the district's housing supply shortage as one of the reasons.

They added that highway authorities have, subject to conditions, raised no objections.