Wealden Planners Approve Next Stage Of Westham Housing Scheme

The next stage of a major housing development has been green lit by Wealden planners.

On Thursday (October 5), Wealden District Council’s Planning Committee South approved a reserved matters application connected with plans to build 119 homes on land to the south of Rattle Road in Westham.

Known as Site C, the land is the final part of a 318-home development, which gained outline planning permission in July 2020. Plans for Sites A and B — containing 199 homes — were approved by council planners in August.

When taken together, the now-approved development differs from the outline proposals in one key way. This is the layout of the houses in the final design when compared to the indicative layout presented at the outline stage.

This indicative layout set out 209 of the homes within Sites A and B, with Site C containing 109 homes. While this indicative layout is not a binding, councillors were uneasy about the impact of the new layout on a neighbouring property.

In light of these concerns, Cllr Geoffrey Draper (Con) argued the committee should consider a deferral, with the aim of asking the developer to reduce the number of overall homes. 

Cllr Draper said:

“In order to make up the whole, we are facing an extra 10 [houses] on this site and that is going to damage someone. 

“I have sat on other applications where even the developer has realised [the total number is] perhaps not ideal and therefore they have bitten the bullet and … they have decreased the number to make it more acceptable.”

He added:

“Perhaps [we could] defer for a few weeks so our officers can go in to bat for one of our residents. It would please me … to go home and think I’ve done something good here.”

In response, officers warned that a deferral — even for a short period — could have a negative impact on the district’s housing land supply figure. This, they said, could be particularly relevant to an upcoming planning inquiry 

Despite some concerns, committee members ultimately felt the scheme was acceptable as it was.

Proposing approval, Green Party councillor Cornelie Usborne, the committee’s deputy chair, said:

“I think [the scheme] illustrates once more the difficulty we have between what we would like to have done and what we have to endure … because we are held by the government to certain regulations. 

“Because, this is in so many ways a very positive application I would actually want to move to accept this, with a proviso that we are not happy on all fronts.”

In all, the development is to be made up of 11 one-bedroom homes, 46 two-bedroom homes, 36 three-bedroom homes and 26 four bedroom homes. Of these 42 properties will be classed as affordable housing.

For further information see application reference WD/2022/2727/MRM on the Wealden District Council website.