Wealden local plan to go out to consultation

At an extraordinary meeting held on Thursday (February 8), district councillors agreed for the authority’s latest draft local plan to go out to a formal “regulation 18” consultation, which will see residents asked for their views on what the final version of the document should address.

The scope of the draft local plan is significant, setting out areas where development could take place over the next 15 years or more, alongside a wide range of policies intended to guide what form that development takes.

It also sets out a framework for how 15,729 new homes (including 8,113 which already have planning permission) could be built within the district between October 2023 and March 2040. While a significant target, this figure falls well below the government’s requirement to build 19,800 new homes over the same period.

Ian Tysh, the Green Party’s cabinet portfolio holder for planning and environment, said: “I would like to stress that this is a draft plan, not the final version. It will not be in the form it is in now when it is sent to the inspector.

“It is bound to change for the reasons set out in my report — policy changes, possible changes of government, the evidence still being gathered and so on — but also because we will be running, from early March, a genuine positive consultation.

“This is not a tick box exercise or going through the motions.”

Cllr Tysh also urged residents to give feedback on elements of the plan they liked as well as those they don’t, arguing it would allow such policies to influence planning decisions before the plan is fully adopted.

Council leader James Partridge (Lib Dem) said: “The alternative of not having a plan doesn’t mean the development won’t happen. It means the seemingly endless stream of speculative planning applications will continue.

“The sites about which concerns have been raised today will still be in play, along with many others. We would continue to have very little say in the quality of what is built, where it is built and what it looks like.”

He added: “Saying yes [to the consultation] does not irrevocably commit to anything, except asking people what they think. Saying no puts us back to square one.

“If we say yes today, Wealden has choices. If we say no it doesn’t.”

The consultation is due to begin in March and last for eight weeks. It will include a number of public exhibitions, with the first of these due to be held at Hailsham’s Civic Community Hall on March 23.

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While councillors agreed for the consultation to go ahead, the decision was not reached without some controversy.

Wealden’s Conservatives walked out of the meeting in protest of what the group described as a “corruption of process”.