Major recent activity has been to object to two solar farm applications. Both are very close to another recently approved by the neighbouring authority, Wealden, at Ninfield. Rother’s are in Catsfield. Because 80% of Rother is in the High Weald AONB, Rother had never had to deal with a solar farm before the first one, at St Francis Farm. Through ignorance perhaps, they approved it, and now the countryside is reaping the consequences. Fortunately the second application 1km away from the Wealden and the St Francis one was rejected, but the applicants have now put in another slightly amended version for Rother to deal with.

In Hastings a singular victory was achieved when the Council refused an application for amended plans for an already built blockhouse in the Country Park, overlooking the sea, which is in the High Weald AONB. It took a great amount of courage on the councillors’ part to refuse, given officer’s recommendation and the possible threat of a compensation claim by the applicant.

Northiam, one of the larger villages in Rother with a quota of 142 houses to fill under the new Rother Local Plan, have just received a Persimmon Homes application for 66 houses on greenfield land. Northiam certainly feels hard done by with their 142 figure, as the village has unlike most others seen almost continuous development during the recession.

The Bexhill-Hastings Link Road sank deeper into the winter mud, when construction ground to a halt. No chance of its July 2015 opening date – but more importantly, watch the costs soar!

The current state of play with regard to the Rother Local Plan is that the second public inquiry was held at the end of January, and the Inspector promised then to be able to report in May. 

However since the publication of the NPPF guidance in April, she has said that she needs to consider this and that the timetable will slip. 

Rother and Hastings have attracted some national publicity with the protests against the construction of the Bexhill to Hastings Link Road – not quite to the level of Balcombe, but all in vain now as the construction works have started. The impact of this pointless road is being felt in several neighbouring villages and towns like Battle, as well as on site. We live in hope that if careful excavation works are undertaken, items of real historical significance may be found – even the real site of the Battle of Hastings.

Bexhill Link Road – Shock Decision

The Planning agenda for both Rother and Hastings has been shaken to the core by the Secretary of State for Transport finally after ten years’ of valiant campaigning against by the local CPRE and other bodies including the Hastings Alliance, deciding to give the go ahead to the severing of the Coombe Haven SSSI and much more unique countryside by the Bexhill Hastings Link Road. Not only will the road be a massive waste of national and local taxpayers’ money as it will at least at one end (Baldslow Down) be not reaching its intended destination – the A21, its justification has been so far as ESCC is concerned is that it will open up areas for housing and commercial development. Yet the proof of the wrongness of the decision is that no developer who has been contacted has indicated any willingness at all to contribute their own money to the cost of the road. Arguably the only one small blessing – if the road does actually get built - is that it will relieve some of the pressure on rural villages in Rother who would otherwise have to accept large numbers of houses up to the end of the plan period in 2026.

NPPF

The effect of NPPF should be to spur both Hastings and Rother to finalise their development frameworks because the tighter their frameworks, the less the vague NPPF can be used by developers to dump inappropriate development on our countryside.