Summer Tour Diary – Eton New Town

Eton New Town dominated three of my village meetings on my summer tour. Residents in East Chiltington, Westmeston and Plumpton all raised concerns about the proposal for 3,000+ houses on the edge of the South Downs.

For those unfamiliar with the situation, Eton College, the prestigious private school famous for educating Prime Ministers, is now trying to turn its hand to property development in the East Sussex countryside under the name of “North Barnes” (their PR campaign). This has been fought by local residents and the Don’t Urbanise The Downs campaign group who are all rightly trying to stop this irresponsible scheme.

The proposals are for a new town in a 455-acre site which sits just north of the South Downs National Park. The hamlet of East Chiltington, along with the tiny villages of Plumpton Green and South Chailey, would be engulfed by the new town.

This would transform a rural area which currently is home to single track roads, farmland, woodland and ancient hedgerows into an urban area.

I have been clear; I am not against building houses. We have a housing crisis that means young people are unable to buy their first home, or those later in life are unable to downsize. But houses must be in the right place, which is not what Eton is proposing.

Serious considerations must be made for water. Firstly, is supply. Currently large parts of our area are under hosepipe bans with South East Water unable to guarantee our water supply. The South East is one of the most water scarce parts of the United Kingdom. Without new reservoir investment, developments like this are irresponsible. This does not even mention the other concern of waste water. We are already seeing our waterways on their knees because of the sewage dumping scandal. This would only make the situation worse.

This is why I have always believed that development must come with the infrastructure to match, but without new reservoir development and improvements to our waste water system additional housing of this scale should not be built.

There are also serious flooding concerns as the Bevern Stream already floods regularly which blocks the lanes and overflows across nearby fields. More houses would only increase that risk.

The transport question is another area of clear concern, which was raised extensively by residents in Westmeston in particular. According to studies by Don’t Urbanise the Downs, the impact on traffic and roads would be monumental. The development would lead to around 4,000 additional cars & up to 3.5m extra car journeys a year. It would take some 30 years to build, with residents impacted by the disruption of construction for decades.

The other key transport question is rail. Here the actions of the new Burnham Government are worrying. They have decided to ease planning rules in areas close to rail stations. I do not think it is a coincidence since then a glossy new pamphlet is doing the rounds advocating for the project.

We already have so many sites that could be redeveloped, but the current system incentivises developers to sit on land with planning permission and not build. Meanwhile developers like those behind the Eton scheme plough head-first into our countryside leaving destruction and unwanted houses in their wake.

I am concerned that this new wave of proposals intend to capitalise on Lewes District’s historic planning failures that have led it to being put into special measures for planning, meaning democratic accountability can be bypassed and developers go straight to the planning inspector to get their way. Residents and campaigners were successful in stopping the inclusion of the project in the local plan.

We must be ready to stand together again and keep it out of the District’s local plan, and ensure it does not become a reality.