Mid-Sussex District Council Receives Flak For Stalling District Plan

The stalling of Mid-Sussex District Council’s District Plan will ‘play into the hands of opportunistic developers’, the Bolney Action Group has declared.

The group, which is currently opposing proposals for 200 homes in the village, spoke out after a planning inspector reported that the Plan could be set for failure.

The council has launched a legal challenge against the accusation that it failed in what is known as a Duty to Cooperate – ‘engaging constructively’ with neighbouring authorities on issues such as taking on some of the homes that others cannot build.

If the challenge fails and the council has to start the Plan from scratch, it could be more than two-and-a-half years before it is submitted again.

Bolney Action Group member Duncan Crocker said:

“This announcement reaffirms our fears that a shambolic stand-off between [the council] and the Planning Inspectorate will play into the hands of opportunistic developers who are trying to obtain planning permission for totally inappropriate sites, such as Foxhole Farm in Bolney.”

Dozens of objections have already been filed against the Foxhole Farm plans.

Wates Developments hopes to build on the 16.88-hectare site in Foxhole Lane, while creating 500 cycle spaces and 440 car parking spaces.

The company said the development would expand Bolney in a ‘sustainable’ manner and provide ‘much needed housing’, as well as affordable homes.

But the Action Group called it ‘hugely disproportionate’ and ‘unsustainable’ while also raising safety concerns about the proposed access onto the A272.

Foxhole Farm was allocated for housing in the draft District Plan but not in the previous Plan, which was adopted in 2018.

Without an adopted Plan laying out when and where building can take place, the council would have limited defence against speculative development plans, especially given the need for 19,741 homes to be built by 2039.

Mr Crocker added:

“Other villages and towns should be wary that they are now likely to find themselves in a similar predicament to us, so it’s very worrying news not just for Bolney but for the whole district of Mid-Sussex”