Councillors refuse Robertsbridge homes

Controversial plans for a housing development in Robertsbridge have been turned down by councillors.

On Thursday (September 4), Rother District Council’s planning committee considered proposals from Devine Homes PLC to build 41 homes on agricultural land to the north of Bishops Lane.

While recommended for approval, the scheme had seen opposition from Salehurst and Robertsbridge Parish Council and others, primarily due to the site having been “rejected” when considered for inclusion in the village’s neighbourhood plan.

Council officers said these concerns would be unlikely to offer strong grounds for refusal, however, as national planning rules require neighbourhood plans to be less than five years old for conflict with its policies to be considered a significant harm. The plan had been made in 2018.

Ward councillor Susan Prochak (Lib Dem) urged the committee to come to a different conclusion. She said: “There is no requirement for a five-year review on neighbourhood plans. What we have still on the table — and we can’t dismiss it — is our own local plan and the neighbourhood plan.

“The neighbourhood plan has got as much legal standing as our own core strategy; it has as much legal standing as our own core strategy. So don’t dismiss the neighbourhood plan and don’t dismiss it because that is where the objectors are.

“They’ve already said, ‘look we told you, we’ve told you many times, we don’t want this site’. If we did the questionnaire again today we would have the same result. This is premature, this site is not ready.”

Similar concerns were shared by other councillors. Cllr Tim Grohne (Con, Southern Rother) said: “It kind of breaks my heart looking at this particular application because we get Lego blocks built everywhere on every plan and here are some really attractive houses; there are lots of one- and two-bedroom units for young people and old people downsizing.

“It is exactly what we need, but it is smack bang in the middle of what has deliberately been left as a green space so it doesn’t turn into an urban town and remains a rural village.

“I’m very finely balanced, but I think local democracy and the environment and the availability of lots of other alternatives means it is not unreasonable to refuse this application.”

Officers reiterated their concerns about this approach, noting how it would unlikely to be supported by national planning policy.

However, the committee opted to turn down the proposals on similar but different grounds.

Putting forward this motion, Cllr Mary Barnes (Con, Hurst Green and Ticehurst) initially argued the scheme should be refused due to its landscape impact.

In their written recommendation, officers had acknowledged the scheme would result in some harm to the High Weald National Landscape, but say this would be outweighed by the scheme’s benefits. Even so, they advised the committee to focus on this issue in its refusal.

A refusal on these grounds was agreed on by a majority vote.

The developer had initially proposed to build 44 homes on the land, but concerns were raised around the “landscape and visual effects” of these earlier submissions. As a result, the number was reduced to allow changes to the scheme’s layout.

The development would have been expected to consist of: four one-bedroom flats; six two bedroom flats; four two-bedroom maisonettes;15 two-bedroom houses; and 12 three-bedroom houses. Of these, 16 homes — eight of the flats, two of the maisonettes and six of the two-bedroom houses — would have been classed as affordable housing.

For further information on the proposals see application reference RR/2022/1379/P on the Rother District Council website.