‘Cuck-stye’ homes controversy: Mid Sussex MP calls site ‘extremely inappropriate’

Plans to build up to 1,450 homes on a 100-hectare site between Ansty and Cuckfield were recently submitted to the District Council.

The outline application from Fairfax Acquisitions Ltd and the Norris family proposes creating a ‘garden community’ on land east of the A272.

It includes plans for up to 90 residential care units, a primary school and school for children with special educational needs, a sports hub, shops and community buildings.

MP Mims Davies said on December 13: “‘Cuckstye’ is an extremely inappropriate place for this level of development and would have had a huge impact on the character of the area and local infrastructure so close to the new northern arc development now known as Brookleigh.”

The MP said protecting the local environment is ‘incredibly important’ to the district’s residents.

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She said: “As the MP, I have worked with Cllr Pete Bradbury, Cllr Jim Knight, Cllr Malcolm Avery and former leader of Mid Sussex District Council (MSDC) Jonathan Ash-Edwards to make sure the strength of feeling to resist the ‘Cuckstye’ development was understood and as the local Conservatives we have been united against this unnecessary, unwanted and audacious bid to circumvent the Local Plan and insert such a site of homes between this precious green space on the edge of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) which is a key part of our national landscapes.

“I continue to fully support the position of the many unhappy and deeply concerned Mid Sussex residents, who have approached me over the past 20-plus months to raise their significant distress and anger about the proposed extensive development on this site, which, with the potential significant effect on the parishes and our way of life, is truly untenable.”

Mrs Davies called the existing infrastructure ‘already stretched’, which she said includes road networks, water supplies, the NHS, and dental and GP services. She recently brought the DEFRA Minister for the Natural Environment and Land Use to the area ‘to show her why this site must not be touched’.

She added: “As many will already know I wrote in February 2022 to the Secretary of State for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) the Rt Hon Michael Gove MP, on this matter in strong support of the call for change for MSDC housing targets to be realistic in consideration of the Mid Sussex environmental and infrastructure constraints that council has always sought to balance. We do need more homes and services, but they must be in the right places and with local resident and parish support and this application will be resisted as it’s disappointingly far from this and the developers know it and they must think again.”

The design statement submitted with the application said the development would be ‘an extension of the existing village of Ansty, aiming to benefit and welcome the existing residents into the scheme just as much as the new’.

It added: “This change will be positive and necessary, and presents opportunity for growth and betterment. It will replace facilities and amenities which have been lost in the village, along with providing new ones to serve Ansty as a whole.”