Page 12 - MJC submissions

STEPS TOWARDS AN AGREED STATEMENT OF FACTS
And stipulations

1 The Current Application (Continued)
Appendix E1 sets out details of the dwellings proposed in the current application and can be
summarised as follows:

No of Type Total Average Parking
Blocks Market Afford Total 1 bed 2 bed Floor Floor Page | 2
area sq. area Open Covered Total
ft Sq. Ft
7 50 21 71 18 53 49,635 699 78 15 93
Table 1: Summary of accommodation on the WH-EDF site

The road A-A on Figure 1 would only make sense if the intention was to share it with the
adjoining Wealden House: Life Improvement Centre (WH:LIC) and WH: Northern Car Park
(WH:NCP) sites, but no applications had been made in respect of them. This was one of the
mysteries of the current application and was the first – and remains the only written -
indication of an integrated development consolidating the WH:EDF, WH:LIC and WH:NCP
sites.

2 THE INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT
The original application (Dated 13 April 2018) was loaded onto the Mid Sussex District
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Council (MSDC) website in May 2018 but was removed when objections were raised that
Ashurst Wood Village Council (AWVC) had not been consulted. In fairness to AHL, this
omission was based on advice from its professional town planning experts (See paragraph 5.3
page 16) that a pre-application meeting with MSDC in 2016 (On an entirely different design
and application (DM/16/2854 for WH:EDF) was sufficient consultation and did not need
repeating.

This was bad advice. It created the impression that the application was being bludgeoned
through to circumvent Ashdown Wood Village Council (AWVC) - as was required by the
Localisation Act 2011 and the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). The breach of
process was made more worrying by MSDC’s acceptance of the application knowing, or
having good reason to suspect, that it was in breach.

The application was withdrawn from MSDC’s website and AHL required to consult with
AWVC and village residents. This consultation took place on 29 May 2018 in Ashurst Wood
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Village Hall. I spoke with Mr Peter Owen the Managing Director of AHL.

I had been told by neighbours, who had attended earlier, that Mr Owen had been “arrogant
and dismissive” and in response to criticism is alleged to have said that:

 “If people didn’t like the additional traffic resulting from the development they should
move”;
 “People living in flats don’t need gardens and the kids can play in the woods”;

 “Eventually, everyone will live in small flats.”

I found Mr Owen and his colleagues, competent, pleasant and prepared to listen. But they
gave the impression of being over-confident that MSDC would approve the application,
regardless of local opposition.