CPRE Sussex have submitted a response to proposed new government rules which will allow allow developers to transform "unused" agricultural buildings into homes. CPRE Sussex are concerned about the impact on the Sussex landscape and local communities. Georgia Wrighton, Director of CPRE Sussex responded to the consultation. See letter below:

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.

Mayfields residents and countryside campaign groups including CPRE Sussex and LAMBS (Locals Against Mayfield Building Sprawl) created a 7 mile long yellow ribbon around the proposed building site.

7 October 2013

MPs JOIN CPRE SUSSEX AND LOCAL CAMPAIGNERS IN CONDEMNING PLANS FOR NEW TOWN IN SUSSEX COUNTRYSIDE

PHOTOCALL MAYFIELD MARKET TOWN MEETING: Friday 18 October 7.30pm Adastra Hall, Keymer Road, Hassocks

Nick Herbert MP for Arundel and South Downs and Nicholas Soames MP for Mid Sussex will speak at a meeting organised by Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) Sussex and Locals Against Mayfield Building Sprawl (LAMBS) on Friday 18 October 7.30pm.

16 October 2013

Georgia Wrighton, Director of CPRE Sussex responded on Monday to a Department of Communities and Local Government consultation which proposes to remove the requirement to notify landowners above fracking/shale gas drilling activities going on underground beneath their properties.

The new proposed standard application form will fail to "consider the complex and far-reaching impacts of unconventional oil and gas exploration and extraction, and attempts to ignore real concerns in the countryside about the impacts on local people and the environment," says Wrighton.

Read the full response here in our Fracking campaigns section.

A planning threat near where you live? Let us know about it so we can spread the word. Complete this online form and we'll be able to add the information to online map. (It may take a few days for us to upload it – we rely on volunteers to upload your submissions!)

The Annual CPRE Sussex Countryside Trust Bursary of £500.00 will be awarded to a student journalist studying at City College Brighton & Hove who has a serious interest in raising awareness of environmental and countryside issues over the course of the coming year.

When: Friday 18 October 7.30pm

Where: Adastra Hall, Keymer Road, Hassocks BN6 8QH

Developers are seeking government support for a new town, the size of Burgess Hill right here.

IT WILL AFFECT YOU, potentially devalue your home and cover the countryside around Henfield, Woodmancote, Shermanbury, Twineham, Wineham, Sayers Common, Albourne, Blackstone, Hickstead & Hurstpierpoint. We must act now. Find out more about this vast proposed development.

Come and make your voice heard

Keynote Speakers:

• Nick Herbert MP Arundel & South Downs
• Nicholas Soames MP Mid Sussex
• Anthony Watts-Williams Locals Against Mayfield Building Sprawl (LAMBS)

Chair: Dr Roger Smith Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) Sussex

This meeting is jointly organised by CPRE Sussex and LAMBS Locals Against Building Sprawl

About this meeting

Campaigners say that developer’s plans will concrete over precious countryside, precious though not benefitting from any special protection which would provide some chance against the ‘development at all costs’ bias we are seeing in national planning policy implementation. Locals fear that this much loved landscape could be sacrificed to profit over proper planning.

Georgia Wrighton, Director of CPRE Sussex said “Neither plans being developed by Horsham or Mid Sussex District Councils identify the need for proposals being put forward by Mayfield Market Town Ltd, yet local democracy is in danger of being undermined by pressure being put to bear by company interests. The need for housing is undeniable in Sussex but how much, where and how that development is provided must be allowed to be debated locally, not foisted upon communities by have-a-go developers taking advantage of mixed messages from government. We are looking to government to show us that Localism works in practice.”

CPRE say that there is enough brownfield land to build 740,920 new dwellings in the southern regions (London, South East, and the South West) and that developers are holding onto land for 400,000 homes locked up in planning permissions not yet built in the UK. This public meeting follows a major conference held by CPRESussex in March ‘Futureproofing Sussex’ which showcased the CPRE national report ‘Countryside Promises: Planning realities’. The report analyses the way that the government’s planning policy, the National Planning Policy Framework has been applied since its introduction last year, highlighting that the views of local communities have been overruled time and time again with major new housing developments being allowed to sprawl across precious countryside.  

Important - Mid Sussex District Plan on Hold

Mid Sussex DC has decided not to submit its own district plan for public examination until the coalition government has rescinded the South East Plan.

This is important because the Plan imposed a very high housing allocation that would have resulted in overwhelming building levels. We have received mixed signals on the timing of the repeal, but it may be before the end of the year. In the meantime, neighbourhood groups are campaigning against the planned urban extension to Burgess Hill, development sites in Haywards Heath and proposals to build to the south west of East Grinstead.