Page 69 - All files for Planning Inspectorate update

Ashbourne Park Owners’ Association

3 Ashbourne House. Lewes Road. Ashurst Wood. RH19 3TB

4 June 2019

Dear Mr King,
RE EDF development proposal DM/19/1025

I am writing on behalf of the Ashbourne Park Owners’ Association in response to Mr Frank
Taylor’s letter of 17 May 2019.

His letter asserts that the above proposal is fully compliant with the Neighbourhood Plan on
the basis that:-

1. A development of 50+ flats on this site is essential to achieving the Plan’s objectives

2. The previous application DM/18/1548 was open to full comment by interested
parties and the new application reflects all the comments and objections raised.

In connection with the first assertion we would point out the following:-

 Just because a site is capable of 50+ units it does not mean that development at that
density is mandatory. More to the point……
 In para 1.6 of his letter Mr Taylor states that “If EDF were not to be developed to its
allocated 50+ units, one wonders where else development would be preferred”.

Well, in addition to the sites identified in the Plan that could together deliver 62
units, is the Life Improvement Centre with as yet no allocated number of dwellings.
Indeed the potential for development of this site is specifically identified as a
possibility in the applicant’s own submission, where they include a schematic with
four potential buildings on the site.

Furthermore the Neighbourhood Plan notes that over the Plan period there is
further potential from windfall sites not yet identified.

The Plan period runs from 2015 to 2031. The requirement for 62 homes therefore
spans sixteen years, an average of about four per year, so there is absolutely no
imperative whatsoever to develop a 50+ unit site now. Indeed, with the number of
unsold flats within about a mile of this site, it is questionable whether there is a
market appetite for another fifty units, and certainly not in Ashurst Wood itself.