Page 16 - Ashbourne Park

STEPS TOWARDS AN AGREED STATEMENT OF FACTS
And stipulations

3 IMPORTANT BACKGROUND

3.1 Ashurst Wood and Neighbourhood
Ashurst Wood is classified in MSDC’s District Plan of March 2018 as a Category 3 village
meaning that it is:

“Medium sized providing essential services of the needs of their own residents and Page | 8
immediate surrounding communities. Whilst more limited, these can include key
services such as primary schools, shops, recreation and community facilities, often
shared with neighbouring communities”.

The neighbouring communities are Forest Row, East Grinstead, Coleman’s Hatch, Upper
Hartfied, Hammerwood and Holtye. It is almost inconceivable that residents from these
communities would choose to travel to AW to shop, mainly because of serious parking
difficulties and better alternatives.

There is a good argument that Ashurst Wood should be reclassified in Category 4. It is 8 times
smaller in terms of area than the average of Category 3 villages and half the average of
Category 4.

Classifications may not appear important, but they are in one respect and that is the extent to
which they reflect the degree of rurality and the expectations for new development. Table 4
summarises the position, based on the limited data available (see Appendix F1):

Area in ha Area Population People Number Dwelling
(ha) Hectare dwellings Per ha
Category 3 3,216 1.12
Category 4 0.35*
Average in Mid Sussex 33,403 128,000 3.83
Ashurst Wood Parish 251.32 1771- 1,800 7.05 800 3.07
Ashurst Wood (Current) 0.84 142 169 71 85
Integrated development 1.24 240 193 120 97
Spinney Hill 0.57 24 42 6 10.53
Cairo 193
Mumbai 291
Table 4: Population densities
17
The density of the development is grossly excessive and out of character with Ashurst
Wood. It is more indicative of an urban ghetto than a rural Sussex village. On this
basis alone, the application breaches many important planning policies and should be
rejected.

Ashurst Wood is bisected by the A22, with its centre lying to the east of the very busy arterial
road. There are no pedestrian crossings nor cycle lanes. Crossing the road – by pedestrians,
vehicles, horses and bicycles - is a nightmare.

17 Which sometime vary from figures produced elsewhere in this paper as input figures are taken from different
sources. The conclusions are consistent