Current news
Appeal to oppose damaging developments, including Mayfields Market Town - Update and Thank You
Written by CPRE Sussex
CPRE Sussex has had a really positive response to its recent appeal, with our members and supporters generously donating over £4,000 towards fighting proposals against damaging developments in the Sussex countryside. Many of you attended the Mayfield Market Town public meeting in October, jointly organised by CPRE Sussex and LAMBS and attended by MPs Nick Herbert and Nicholas Soames. Mayfield Market Town Ltd aims to build a whole new town of 25,000 people in the green gap between Crawley and Brighton. In November CPRE Sussex appealed for support towards the cost of opposing this and other developments through the planning system.
The charity’s Chairman, David Johnson, spoke of his gratitude to appeal donors, saying, “Our thanks go to everyone who has contributed to our appeal. We are very conscious that, as a charity, we rely on our members’and supporters’ generous donations, which are invaluable for achieving our aim of protecting the open spaces that are so highly prized across Sussex.”
Successful appeals such as these mean that CPRE Sussex is in a stronger position to call developers and local planners to account, at a time when the proponents of the new town continue to promote their plans to build over 1,200 acres of Sussex farmland.
For further information on the Mayfields campaign, click here.
Photo © floradora1
Government fails to make the CAP deliver value
Written by William Shaw19 December 2013
CPRE expressed disappointment at today's announcement by Defra on how much money rural development measures, including green farming schemes, will receive.
Gatwick Airport included on airport expansion shortlist
Written by William Shaw
17 December 2013
The Government-appointed Airports Commission has included Gatwick Airport in its shortlist of three options for runway expansion.
Reacting to the announcement, Georgia Wrighton, Director of Campaign to Protect Rural England (Sussex) said:
“A second runway at Gatwick, together with sprawling development and car parks anticipated on a massive scale, would concrete over cherished open countryside. A heady cocktail of increased flights, HGV traffic and cars would erode the tranquillity of rural communities, and the health and quality of life of people living under its shadow.
Mid Sussex District Plan hearing: "A kangaroo court"
Written by CPRE Sussex
20 November 2013
Mid Sussex District Council faced what was described as a “Kangaroo court” as it tried to defend its District Plan at an Examination in Public last week. At the first public meeting of the Mid Sussex District play, held at Oakhurst, the Council was giving evidence on a technicality called the ‘Duty to Cooperate’ which is a new requirement under the Localism Act.
The new Act was meant to give local people a greater say on housing, yet among those grilling the Council were representatives from 12 property companies, all of which have a vested interest in the plan’s failure. The Inspector is now considering the evidence before giving his verdict next week. If he rejects it then it will have to be redrawn, allowing developers a window of opportunity to build on unprotected Greenfield sites in the area, and landing local tax payers with the extra cost of producing a new plan.
8 November 2013
A major article in the Daily Mirror (7 November 2013) by investigative journalist Andrew Penman has launched a scathing attack on the motives behind the proposed Mayfield new town development in Sussex, following the public meeting held jointly by CPRE Sussex and Locals Against Mayfields Sprawl.
Questioning the sustainability of a development on land prone to flooding, without decent transport access, Penman writes: "This is a story about a beautiful stretch of the South Downs that a company would like to bury under a 10,000-house new town, making a fortune in the process."
6 November 2013
The high profile seminar held jointly by GACC, CPRE Surrey and CPRE Sussex on Friday 25 October voiced local and national concern about the prospect of a new runway at Gatwick Airport. Attended by over thirty local councillors, all the major parties, four MPs and one MEP, the seminar concluded with the Chair tabling a resolution that, “Those here would oppose any new runway at LGW”, which was passed by a show of hands with a large majority.
1 November 2013
At a packed public meeting on 18 October held jointly by CPRE Sussex and Locals Against Mayfield Building Sprawl, local MPs lambasted the plan to build 10,000 new homes on land between Henfield and Sayers Common.
Nick Herbert MP for Arundel and South Downs said, “This new town proposal is a con, not wanted by the parish council or district council.”
Nicholas Soames, MP for Mid Sussex, joined CPRE Sussex's Roger Smith and Georgia Wrighton in declaring it to be “an appalling, opportunistic proposal.”
Read a full account of the meeting in our Mayfield campaign section
New agricultural buildings law will "destroy the character of rural areas"
Written by William ShawCPRE Sussex Director Georgia Wrighton has responded to proposed new government planning rules announced by Nicholas Boles which will make it easier for developers to transform unused transform agricultural buildings into homes. In a response to the Department for Communities and Local Government she wrote:
On 16 October hundreds of people protested the plan for a new town of 10,000 homes in the Sussex countryside, tying a seven-mile-long yellow ribbon around the 1,000-acre site of the proposed Mayfield new town.
