Linden Homes is appealing against the Council’s decision to refuse planning permission for 200 new homes on farmland adjacent to the Grade II listed viaduct carrying the Bluebell railway into East Grinstead.  CPRE supported MSDC’s decision to refuse permission for the scheme on a number of grounds, including its impact on the local landscape character, agricultural capability and on the town’s already severe traffic congestion.  We are also concerned as to its potential effect on the listed viaduct and on nearby EU protected habitats on Ashdown Forest.  The appeal is set to be heard in October.

The Lindfield Preservation Society and local Lindfield residents scored a victory at last month’s planning committee where they persuaded a clear majority of committee  members to reject a recommendation from their planning officers to allow a 180 home development on a greenfield site on Scamps Hill between Lindfield and Haywards Heath.  This site had been rejected last year as unsuitable for development by both the District Council for the purposes of its draft District Plan, and the local parish councils of Lindfield and Lindfield Rural in the preparation of their joint neighbourhood plan that was adopted in January. 

This decision is consistent with a recent Court decision that confirmed that local planning authorities have the discretion to give more weight to adopted neighbourhood plans that make adequate provision to meet their local parish housing needs than to the need to impose additional housing burdens on the parish in order to reduce the District’s overall housing shortfall under its outdated current Local Plan.  That court decision validated a long contested decision to refuse permission for another development at Sayers Common that conflicted with that Parish’s neighbourhood plan.