Mid Sussex District Council decided at its last meeting on 20th March to approve its draft District Plan for submission to public examination. This decision follows from the revocation of the South East Plan with its 17,100 new home target on 25th March. The next stage in the process will be publication of the plan and its supporting evidence followed by a 6 week public consultation period between 7th May and 17th June on the draft Plan. The dates for the public examination of the Plan by the Planning Inspectorate have yet to be announced. The Mid Sussex District Committee will be meeting shortly to discuss its input to the Planning Inspectorate on the submission draft Plan. Input from Mid Sussex CPRE members will be welcomed and should be addressed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

See Downloads below for CPRE Sussex’s views on Mid Sussex Council’s proposed District Plan 2011 - 2031

Housing targets

MSDC may be aiming to reduce its 20 year housing target from 17,100 as imposed under the now revoked South East Plan to (a minimum of) 10,600. However, until the Council's views and evidence of the District's housing needs reflected in its draft District Plan has been publicly examined by the Planning Inspectorate, and weighed by the Inspector against any other evidence submitted by developers etc, MSDC seems to be accepting that its housing supply target remains driven by the South East Plan's 17,100 number and that it is not building enough houses to meet that target. That has a very serious consequence for the District in that under the National Planning Performance Framework (NPPF) , which now governs the way that much of the planning system works, Councils which cannot demonstrate that they re building enough houses over rolling a 5 year period to meet their ultimate target are penalised, and Mid Sussex has accepted for some time that it has fallen behind its old 17,100 target. The penalty comes in the form of a presumption within the NPPF that any new housing application submitted must be approved unless "other material considerations indicate otherwise", a presumption that is extremely difficult for MSDC to rebut. The worrying consequence of MSDC's acceptance that it is currently unable to meet its housing land supply target is that MSDC's ability to control and constrain locally both the number of new homes and the suitability of their location is severely compromised to the detriment of the District, its countryside and its wildlife. The latest example of this problem emerges from a planning appeal where the Planning Inspector overturned MSDC's refusal to allow a 51 house development at Pease Pottage citing the NPPF presumption that new housing should be allowed wherever Councils were lagging behind their 5 year housing supply target unless very special factors dictated otherwise.

Cuckfield Neighbourhood Plan

... has completed its village consultation stage. This plan is one of the front runner plans in the District and will be the product of a very substantial attempt at developing a local plan based on extensive community input. Cuckfield is one of 18 towns and parishes across Mid Sussex that are in various stages of developing local neighbourhood plans. This is more than any other District in Sussex.

Lindfield

CPRE Sussex has written to MSDC Planning Department in support of the opposition of the Lindfield Preservation Society's to a 230 home development proposed by Wates on the outskirts of the village. This proposal is on top of two other significant development proposals that have already been allowed in the village for a further 185 homes. Lindfield Village itself is a conservation area, and allowing yet another major development on its fringes will have a devastating impact on what is one of the prettiest historic villages in the County. There is little evidence of local need for these houses. We consider that these considerations and the sites landscape character amount to sufficiently strong grounds to override the NPPF planning presumption in favour of allowing development in Mid Sussex mentioned earlier, and our submission to the Council queried whether it was correct in accepting that it was failing to met its housing supply target following the revocation of the South East Plan. The Council has not yet determined the planning application.

Ashplats Wood, East Grinstead

We have also written to express our concern at a proposed re-siting of an already approved housing development off Holtye Road, East Grinstead on a sensitive site adjacent to a locally conserved ancient wood. Our concern was that the proposed realignment by the developer would substantially remove the 15 metre boundary between the back of the development and the wood, and that this would contravene both Natural England's recommended practice and the Council's legal duty to protect ancient woodland. Those of you attending the CPRE Sussex Annual General Meeting on 10th July in East Grinstead will have an opportunity that afternoon to enjoy walking through Ashplats Wood and to view the conservation work there undertaken by local residents.

U3A

On 25th April, District Chairman, Michael Brown gave a talk to the local U3A Finance and Economics Discussion Group in Haywards Heath on the new NPPF planning regime and its disturbing implications for Mid Sussex developing District and Neighbourhood Plans.