'Bombshell' to housing plans
A shock eight-year delay on the Haywards Heath relief road and other snags in vital services have been called a 'bombshell' to housing planning.
The latest delay in the relief road around the southern edge of Haywards Heath means it is not likely to be finished until 2017, Mid Sussex Council said this week. Housing developer Crest Nicholson is expected to pay for the road.
The council has also learned that Southern Water treatment works improvements at Burgess Hill might not be finished until 2015 and improvements to sewage treatment services at East Grinstead are expected to end in 2020 instead of 2012.
There are now concerns the delay in such important services will jeopardise meeting Government-imposed targets for new homes by 2018.
The new Mid Sussex District Council leader, Gary Wall, said: "This news has hit like a bombshell and the impact is likely to be far reaching.
"Mid Sussex needs its future housing provision to be delivered in a structured way, with appropriate infrastructure and at a level that meets the needs of existing residents and future generations but we, as the planning authority, are being given an impossible task.
"On the one hand, arbitrary housing numbers imposed by central government require us to deliver an obscene number of houses, on the other, we are told that the infrastructure cannot be delivered for many years. Neither Southern Water nor Crest Nicholson is acting in the best interests of the residents of Mid Sussex."
Mid Sussex District Council has a plan for a five-year rolling supply of housing until 2018 and says: "these three issues are problematic for planning that is of a high quality and sustainable".
The council is currently awaiting a response from the Government Office for the South East for a meeting.
Southern Water said: "We plan our capital programme in five-year periods and hope to carry out more improvement works during the next period (2010-2015) but this is dependent on funding from our regulator Ofwat."
Crest Nicholson said: "Unfortunately turbulent market conditions have impacted upon our original timelines, but we are continuing to work with the local authority to progress our plans for the area and ensure that the correct funding is in place to facilitate ongoing and future progress."
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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