Page 204 - All files for Planning Inspectorate update

The Queens Walk development has all the signs of a white elephant with over 129 new 1
and 2 bed apartments being built in the heart of the town and, unlike the proposed Wealden
House development, adjacent to shops and offices and within easy walking distance of the
railway station. At the time of writing the developer’s web site has had thirteen of those
apartments available for some weeks now. Only in the last fortnight has just one of them
been reserved by a potential buyer. It is understood that fitting out of more flats is on hold
pending a pick-up in the market. Is it really sensible to add to the growing stock of empty
properties in the area?

5. We believe that development at this scale represents over-development of the site. This is
an issue we have raised on numerous occasions before without getting a satisfactory
answer. This site was identified in the AWNP as suitable for 50+ units. Nobody has so far
explained the analytical process by which that number was arrived at, rather than being
plucked out of the sky in a meeting of some kind. It was certainly not identified as the result
of a housing needs survey as you yourself have admitted that no such survey has ever been
undertaken. And as we have previously pointed out we believe that there was an error
committed in the original measurement of the potential buildable area which has
perpetuated the assumption that it can accommodate 50+ units whilst still conforming to
the policy that development should be at a similar density to the surrounding area – which it
certainly is not.
In this connection we would draw your attention to para 3.1.13 of the viability assessment
that you yourselves commissioned from Dixon Searle Partnership which identifies the net
developable area (excluding the Ancient Woodland) as approximately 0.64 hectares. We
have already established from AWVC and the Parish Online planning tool that the area of
our own Ashbourne Park development is 0.358 hectares. Thus development of the EDF site
at a similar density (one of the requirements of the Neighbourhood Plan) would result in:-

0.64 /0.358 X 14 flats = 25 units

rather than the 54 being promulgated. In accordance with Policy 21 of the Neighbourhood
Plan this would also imply 50 car parking spaces, a number that could be easily
accommodated with a reduced number of dwellings.

This strongly supports the twin arguments that we and others have made, that the
developable area of the site has been overstated and the current proposals represent gross
overdevelopment by a factor of 116%.

6. AWNP Policy 9h provides that the mix and volume of housing should “be informed by an up-
to-date housing needs survey”. As your own Council’s response to our request under the
Freedom of Information Act revealed - “the District Council have not prepared any housing
needs surveys specific to this site”.

We continue to find this astonishing.

It needs also to be borne in mind that the identification of the site as suitable for 50+ units is
not of itself definitive. In your own letter of 11 March 2019 rejecting DM/18/1548 you said:-

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