Celebrations as council refuses bid for 1,450 homes

CPRE Sussex welcomes ‘common sense’ decision to refuse controversial and wholly unsustainable ‘Cuckstye’ scheme.

Campaigners have welcomed a decision to refuse planning permission for 1,450 homes on a large farmland site.

CPRE Sussex said the bid for a large development on the south side of the A272 between Cuckfield and Ansty was ‘wholly unsustainable’.

Mid Sussex District Council planning officers had recommended the scheme was approved.

However, councillors at a planning committee meeting last night (Thursday, October 16) refused the bid.

Paul Steedman, director of CPRE Sussex, said: “We welcome this common-sense decision by councillors to refuse the ‘Cuckstye’ scheme. The application by Fairfax Developments would have seen thousands of new residents dropped into the middle of the countryside, away from infrastructure and public transport links. Huge congratulations to all those who have fought so long and hard to protect an important natural landscape from development sprawl.”

CPRE Sussex has been working alongside Cuckfield Parish Council, Ansty and Staplefield Parish Council, the Cuckfield Society and residents to oppose the bid which residents branded the ‘Cuckstye’ scheme.

A spokesperson for Ansty and Staplefield Parish Council and Cuckfield Parish Council, said: “This is absolutely the right outcome. The Council has properly applied the basic planning principle that new development must be sustainably located and Plan based. Ansty Farm was never a sustainable place for major development, and the developer’s Knepp-style rewilding scheme was an undeliverable farce from the start.

“The Council has already identified other, more sustainable, locations to meet its need for new homes.

“If the developer appeals, the community will expect their District Council to fight like hell to uphold the principles that led to today’s decision, and the community here will be right behind them when they do.”

CPRE Sussex planning volunteer, Michael Brown said: “The people of Ansty and Cuckfield can be proud of the fight that their parish councils have put up on their behalf, and I hope that CPRE Sussex has contributed to their success.

“CPRE Sussex campaigns for development to be sustainably located and sustainably built.  Ansty Farm is a textbook example of the wrong place to build. Had the decision gone the other way, no part of rural Mid Sussex would have been safe from predatory, unplanned, development.”

Find out more about CPRE Sussex’s work on planning here: cpresussex.org.uk/get-involved/take-action-on-a-planning-issue-report-a-threat/