Wivelsfield housing development allowed on appeal by planning inspector

In a decision notice published on Thursday (February 23), a planning inspector granted outline planning permission to build up to 96 houses on agricultural land to the east of Ditchling Road.

The scheme, from developer Welbeck Strategic Land, had been refused by Lewes District Council planning officers in May last year, primarily due to concerns about the impact on the character of Wivelsfield Green.

In their decision notice, the inspector agreed that the development would harm the character and appearance of the area.

However, the inspector concluded that this harm would be outweighed by the benefits of providing new homes, given the district’s outdated local plan and shortfall when compared to government housing targets.

The inspector said: “The appeal scheme would have substantial benefits in relation to the provision of market and affordable housing, moderate economic benefits and limited environmental benefits.

“In the context of the land supply position being only 2.72 years and with no realistic prospect of a new Local Plan which would address this shortfall being adopted in the near future, these benefits collectively carry substantial weight.

“As such, the adverse impacts arising from the harms to the character and appearance of the area and conflict with policies for the supply of housing and landscape are not in my view sufficient to significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits of the scheme.”

The decision has been criticised by local campaigners and councillors, including Cllr Zoe Nicholson, deputy leader of Lewes District Council.

Cllr Nicholson (Green) said: “I am absolutely furious that the government’s planning inspector has yet again overruled the views of local people and run roughshod over local democracy.

“This development was rejected by local people, it was rejected by Lewes District Council’s Planning Committee and yet the inspector, in support of the government’s build build agenda has given this development approval. Across the political spectrum, we all agreed this development was not good for the village of Wivelsfield Green.

“We inherited a Local Plan that the Inspector said was good, that people said was good but the government changed the rules and made it go out of date within 12 months of us being in charge.

“It takes on average six years for a council to put a new one in place and meanwhile the inspector comes and effectively tears up our plan, saying our trees and meadows aren’t worth protecting because building houses in our villages is more important.”

In approving the scheme, the planning inspector ordered LDC to pay part of the developer’s appeal costs. This was because part of the council’s reasons for refusal had already been deemed acceptable as part of a previous planning appeal in 2016.

The inspector deemed this to have been unreasonable behaviour, but did not award costs in full as they did not consider the application would have been granted planning permission had these reasons been excluded.

For further information about the scheme see application reference LW/21/0729 on the Lewes District Council website.