Hailsham development of 241 homes off Ersham Road could be refused

On Thursday (January 26), Wealden District Council’s Planning Committee South is set to again consider a reserved matters application on plans to build 241 homes on land off of Ersham Road.

The scheme, which already has outline planning permission, was last considered by the planning committee in December, when it was deferred due to concerns surrounding the site’s flooding and drainage plans.

East Sussex County Council (as lead local flood authority) had initially not objected to the proposals, as it considered that the developer’s plans would mitigate any flooding hazard, as long as appropriate conditions were put in place.

Even with these conditions, however, the county council had said the mitigated hazard would still pose a ‘risk to life of children’ in some flooding events, due to the location of a designated play area on the site.

With grave concerns around this possibility, the committee opted to defer the scheme to seek further information. Since then, however, the county council has changed its position, saying it now objects to the proposals.

New objections have also been raised by the Pevensey and Cuckmere Water Level Management Board.

In light of this, officers have changed their recommendation as well, saying the scheme should now be refused rather than approved.

Even so, officers say the refusal should be on ‘very targeted grounds’ linked to the developer’s surface water and flooding plans. They say all other aspects of the scheme are either acceptable or could be made so through conditions, so would not provide good grounds for refusal.

This advice will not bind the hands of the committee, however, which deferred the scheme on a without prejudice basis. In other words, all elements of the scheme can be discussed by councillors.

Officers said in their report: “It is recommend that reserved matters be refused but on a very targeted ground linked to surface water and flooding grounds. All other issues are acceptable (or could be shaped by conditions to be made acceptable) and that being so, do not form a reason for refusal.”

For further information see application reference WD/2021/2678/MRM on the Wealden District Council website.