Neighbours' dismay at bid for up to 50 new homes in Battle

Millwood Designer Homes has submitted an application to Rother District Council in a bid to get outline planning permission for the development at Lillybank Farm, London Road.

Millwood says it wants to create ‘a high quality and distinctive residential development within Battle’.

The application includes vehicular access to the site from London Road.

Access would be restricted to a pedestrian and cycle link only through Wattle’s Wish.

The development would also include affordable housing and ‘informal areas of open space’.

Several neighbours have already expressed their objections to the proposal.

Richard Crawford, of Netherfield Road, said: “I sincerely hope that this application will not find support.

“How can it fit in with Battle’s published development plan being situated at the opposite end of town to that which has been promised for years as the location for town expansion.

“When I moved to this end of town it was with the ‘knowledge’ that development was to be elsewhere. Can such a plan be trusted at all?

“Where next? On Battle Green? On the Battleground?

“I strongly object to this location for development in any form.”

Neighbour Mr Phillips described the plans as ‘catastrophic’ and vowed to ‘fight this all the way’.

Others expressed concerns about the increase in traffic, pressure on local infrastructure and the impact the development may have on the nature and character of Battle.

Rother District Council will decide whether to grant outline planning permission for the scheme at a later date.

It is not the first time Millwood Designer Homes has tried to get planning permission to build on the site.

In 2000, the Tonbridge-based firm applied for outline planning permission to build on the site.

Rother District Council turned down the plans in October, 2000.

RDC gave a number of reasons for refusal, including the plans would: “Constitute unjustified residential development of a Greenfield site, which lies outside the Battle development boundary and within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.”

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