A compelling letter we should all read.
Geoffrey Sambrook spent his career as an international metal trader, working in the City. He has lived in Sussex for the larger part of his life, and in the Uckfield area of East Sussex for the last thirty-plus years.
He is a published Novelist and has been a Parish Councillor for the last fifteen years, and Chairman of Isfield Parish Council since 2012. He is also the Chairman of the Working Group against Over Development (WGOD), a group formed of (mainly) Wealden Parish Councillors, with the objective of trying to protect the Low Weald environment from the suburbanisation threatened by the the planning policies of central and local government.
These are his no-nonsense and powerful words around the very real threats on the horizon that will destroy Wealden as we know it.
“Don’t be complicit in the destruction of a historic part of the country“
“There is a tendency in some circles to criticise those who object to excessive development as “NIMBYS”. This is both unfair and inaccurate; in order to understand, it is first necessary to grasp what is actually happening in East Sussex, and specifically Wealden District.
In the absence of a Local Plan – which Wealden District Council have still not completed – there is a presumption in favour of development. This has resulted in a raft of planning applications for suburban-style housing estates, which of course are described as ‘garden communities’, or similar twee misnomers. The reality is that the Low Weald landscape is at risk of being carpet bombed by housing estates. This is not an organic growth of a community.
That Low Weald has been a coherent community for a thousand years; those who threaten it should think very carefully. The power that WDC have to refuse planning applications is obviously limited by the greater power the central government have to over-rule local wishes. However, those who simply roll over and fall in line without heeding the consequences should hang their heads in shame. They will be remembered as those who allowed the destruction of that thousand year old community and landscape.
And what is being allowed? Well, for example, the Ridgewood development on the edge of Uckfield was given planning permission about ten years ago: so far, no more than around 25% of the 1000 houses permitted have been built – and those are not all sold. So there are another 750 already permitted, and there is now an application to build about 1500 more directly opposite, across the A22 on the Owlsbury Farm site. Given the rate of building demonstrated so far, that will condemn those adjacent to the developments to living in a building site for well over ten years. Additionally, across the Lewes Road opposite the Ridgewood development, there are another 350-400 houses to be built on the Horstedpond Farm site.
Then there is the prospect of Oakleigh “Garden Community” – so far not a concrete planning application, but heading that way – which will create effectively a new town of virtually the size of Uckfield (around 4500 new houses) covering the historically significant Terrible Down.
In all, there are currently in excess of 8000 permissions which have been granted and not yet started in Wealden; when all those – like the ones I mention above – which are still to come before the Planning Committee are added to that 8000, can we really believe they are necessary to satisfy local housing need rather than developers’ bottom line?
I could go on, but my point is this: surely it’s time for our elected representatives to stand up for themselves and their electors. We live in a democracy; that means we have the right to object to regulations if they are inappropriate rather than simply supinely accept them, which would make those who take that course complicit in the destruction of a historic part of the country. There should be no objection to proportionate and organic development of the District, but suburbanising a rural county is neither proportionate nor organic.“
Geoffrey Sambrook Chairman, Isfield Parish Council, Chairman, The Working Group against Over Development
Framfield Grange, Framfield