Welcome to the spring 2024 planning
newsletter for the South Downs National Park
Authority. There are beautiful blankets of bluebells across the
National Park at this time of the year and, while it's still a little
chilly, the scents of spring are in the air. This gem of a photo was
taken by Lloyd Lane, at Wepham Woods, near Arundel.
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Almost 700 homes get the green light
Plans for a new
community of 685 homes and cultural,
business and flexible workspace in Lewes have been
approved, subject to planning conditions.
The National Park’s Planning Committee met at County Hall,
Lewes, and voted to give the go-ahead to the plans, subject to a series
of conditions. These include the resolution of highway concerns, raised
by National Highways and East Sussex County Council, as well as a Section
106 legal agreement that requires 30 per cent affordable housing,
including for local people.
Learn more here.
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New cultural hub is approved
Plans for a new
culture, arts and education hub that will provide a downland visitor
gateway have been approved.
Members of the South
Downs National Park Authority’s Planning Committee voted to grant
permission, subject to conditions, to plans for Black Robin Farm,
off Beachy Head Road, Eastbourne, at a meeting held at County Hall,
Lewes. Find out more.
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Homes are approved for village site
Seven homes are to
be built on the edge of a historic village as a disused farmstead is
redeveloped.
The National Park
Authority’s Planning Committee voted to approve plans for a residential
development in King’s Ride, Alfriston.
Find out more here.
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Hotel plans are refused over landscape
harm
Plans for a hotel
complex close to the A3 have been refused because of harm to the
landscape.
An outline
application went before the National Park’s Planning Committee for a
hotel, cycle centre and cafe on a 2.5 hectare greenfield site near Buriton,
Hampshire. Learn more here.
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Appeal over enforcement is dismissed
An
appeal against enforcement action by the Authority over two mobile homes
was dismissed by a Government Planning
Inspector.
The National Park’s
enforcement team was made aware in the summer of 2022 that an
agricultural field to the southeast of Clappers Lane, Fulking, had been
partly covered in hardstanding and two mobile homes placed on site for
residential use. Find out more about the case here.
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UPDATES FROM
PLANNING POLICY
Claire Tester,
Planning Policy Manager, gives an update on key developments in policy.
In the last newsletter we announced the publication of our Housing and
Economic Development Needs Assessment which can be viewed here.
Since then the team has been working hard to finalise the Land
Availability Assessment, which assesses over 800 sites across the
National Park for their suitability to meet these housing and other
development needs. This work is progressing well and we hope to
publish our findings in June.
If you would like to receive notifications and updates on the progress
of the Local Plan Review and other planning policy matters, please
email planningpolicy@southdowns.gov.uk
with your full name and contact information and we will add you to our
consultation database. Further details about the Local Plan Review can
be found here.
We are also planning some public engagement in June/July so people can
have early input into:
- the scope and timetable
for the Local Plan Review and the key issues for it to address;
- how the Local Plan
Review can contribute to delivering the vision for the National
Park and its corporate priorities of climate action, nature
recovery and a National Park for all;
- how they want to be
engaged in subsequent stages of the process including consulting
on a revised Statement of Community Involvement.
Further details of this engagement and
the documents to be consulted on are available in this report
under item 8.
In other planning policy news:
- We have received a
positive Inspectors’ report on the East Sussex Minerals and Waste
Local Plan Partial Review, and the National Park Authority along
with East Sussex County Council and Brighton & Hove City
Council, will be considering reports recommending the adoption of
this Plan over the next few months. This is the last stage of a
process which started in 2017, involved a number of public
consultations and a robust examination of the Local Plan by the
Planning Inspectorate.
- The Hampshire Minerals
and Waste Local Plan Partial Review: pre-examination consultation
took place between 9 January and 5 March 2024.
Representations are currently being processed prior to submitting
them and the Plan and supporting documents to the Planning
Inspectorate for examination.
- The Rottingdean
Neighbourhood Development Plan passed its examination and
referendum and was formally ‘made’ (adopted) by the National Park
Authority in March 2024.
- Bramshott & Liphook
Neighbourhood Development Plan has been submitted for examination
and a pre-examination consultation was carried out between 11th
March and 23rd April 2024.
- The Selbourne Village
Design Statement was consulted on between 1st February and 15th
March 2024 and was adopted at Planning Committee in April as a
Supplementary Planning Document.
- A revised version of
the Technical Advice Note on Extensions and Replacement Dwellings
has been published here.
This takes account of legal advice to ensure that it is consistent
with the wording of policies SD30 and SD31.
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Last few days to nominate!
Planning
agents, developers, builders, landowners and community groups are being
urged to get their nominations in as the clock counts down to the
deadline for the South Downs Design Awards. The deadline is 30 April
and nominating is simple and straightforward.
Submit your
nomination here.
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Useful updates on BNG
Dr
Lynsey Robinson, Ecology Planning Lead, gives her latest lowdown on Biodiversity Net Gain
and how to navigate the changes.
Read her advice here.
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Awards celebrate heritage
The
very best buildings showcasing architecture, high-quality craftsmanship
and conservation techniques will be celebrated once again this year in
the Sussex
Heritage Trust awards. Find out more.
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Chaplaincy gets renovation
A
critical site for helping vulnerable people has been improved after £92,000 of CIL funding.
Find out more here.
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On yer bike! Boost for country park
People and nature
are benefitting from £100,000 of Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)
funding at Queen
Elizabeth Country Park. Learn more here.
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New affordable homes for village
Twelve
new affordable homesare
being built thanks to £100,000 of Section 106 funding from the National
Park Authority.
The cash injection
was awarded to Westbourne Community Trust through the Affordable Housing
Grant scheme towards a 100% affordable housing development. The homes
will be held as affordable in perpetuity. Find out more here.
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Boost for LPAs
around water neutrality
Katharine
Stuart, Planning Policy Lead, gives an update on a funding boost that
will ease current burdens in areas affected by water neutrality rules.
We’re
working with other Local Planning Authorities on a local authority-led
water offsetting scheme for the areas affected by Natural England's
water neutrality position statement within the Sussex North Water
Resource Zone.
This
scheme is called the Sussex North Offsetting Water Scheme, or SNOWS.
The scheme will support developers in obtaining water offset ‘credits’
to enable local plan supported development to come forward, helping to
ease the current burdens in place.
To
help support this work, led by Horsham District Councils, the LPAs for
the affected area submitted a bid to the DLUHC’s Planning Skills
Delivery Fund.
This
is a £29m fund intended to provide support to local authorities to help
clear backlogs of planning applications and address skills gaps.
In
December, the authorities were pleased to be advised that we had been
successful with our bid.
We
were awarded £250,000 of ‘skills gap’ funding to support the delivery
of the SNOWS scheme through the next 12-18 months, after which the
scheme should be self-financing. This funding is very welcome, and the
authorities are grateful to DLUHC and Defra colleagues for their
support with our bid. The National Park Authority would like to thank
Clark Gordon, the Water Neutrality Project Manager and colleagues at
Horsham District Council, for leading this bid.
If you would like to stay up to date on
the development of SNOWS, you can subscribe to the SNOWS newsletter via
the following link.
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A
round-up of planning statistics over past year
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Dates for the diary
The
next Planning Committee meetings will be held on 13 June and 11 July.
You
can watch the meetings on-demand for up to six months after the meeting
through our webcasting
portal.
You
can look at previous and upcoming agendas on the website here.
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