Page 138 - MJC submissions

9 Ashbourne House
Lewes Road
Ashurst Wood
East Grinstead
West Sussex RH19 3TB
Telephone 01342 312050 & Email: comer@btinternet.com

14 September 2018
th
Dear Mr King,

Application for the Wealden House: EDF site and planned integrated development

I have been corresponding with Councillor John Belsey, Ashurst Wood’s representative on
Mid Sussex County Council (MSDC) and Chairman of the Audit Committee. He has suggested
I send you this slightly revised copy of a paper I prepared for his advice.

It provides evidence, among other things, that:

• The current application (DM/18/1548) for development of the Wealden House, EDF
site (WH:EDF) by Ashgrove Homes Limited (AHL) contains so many errors, anomalies
and breaches of policies and process that it should be rejected and resubmitted in the
context of the proposed “integrated development” of an estimated 120 dwellings;

• The repeated assertion in the application that the construction of “50+ units” on the
WH:EDF site was the “minimum requirement” or “would be expected” is a
fabrication. It arises from mistakes or negligence (see paragraphs 2.5 et seq). This
should have been detected long before Mid Sussex District Council (MSDC) finalised its
statutory obligations to produce a Sustainability Report and District Plan;

• The Steering Group (consisting of Ashurst Wood Village Council [AWVC] members
and planning experts: see paragraph 2.3 and Attachment 19) responsible for the 2014
and 2015 Sustainability Reports (see Attachments 1 and 2) and Ashurst Wood
Neighbourhood Plan[AWNP] made it clear that the WH sites should be developed at
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a “similar scale” [to Ashbourne Park] “but careful design would be needed to respect
the character of adjoining and neighbouring buildings”;

• The “scale” (represented in terms density of dwellings per hectare) of

o Ashbourne Park is a maximum of 28 DdHa;
o Ashurst Wood village is 3.19 DdHa;

o The average of Category 3 villages (of which Ashurst Wood is part) is 1.12
DdHa;

o Spinney Hills and Willow Trees (an adjacent concurrent application approved
by MSDC) is 10.53 DdHa;
and the proposed development of 71 units is 85 DdHa.

If this scaling had been accurately applied to the WH:EDF site the maximum number of

units would have less than 30 units and not “50+” or 71.

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