Rother & Hastings District Update May 2021

CPRE activity in Rother & Hastings District.

Given the Government’s insistence that Council meetings revert to being  in person after May 6th, the number of people who have watched  the March Planning  Committee meeting of Rother District Council on Youtube is quite remarkable. There was a heavy and contentious agenda and the meeting lasted over 7 hours but there have been 740 people who have looked at the Youtube video, both live and afterwards. Had the meeting been in person only, there would have been less than 20 people able to attend.

The Rother Planning Committee has been busy with controversial applications over the last three months.  In February there was an application for 43 houses in Burwash, home to Rudyard Kipling’s house, Batemans. It proposed mainly two and a half storey  houses densely packed and was unanimously turned down by the Committee on grounds of its impact on the High Weald AONB, which covers 83% of the land area of Rother District. 135 members of the public attended the meeting.

In March, the Committee refused an application  by PGL Holidays to set up a children’s holiday park on the site of the old Pestalozzi school. The reasons were its impact on the AONB, the intensity of use and the traffic to be generated. An application to build  43 homes in Fairlight Cove was also refused on AONB grounds and the density of the housing proposed.  313 people attended the live meeting.

In April, the Committee approved a development  of 200 homes in Battle at Blackfriars with probably the most environmentally friendly scheme ever received by the Council for a major housing development, with full provision for affordable homes. 142 members of the public attended the meeting.

So it would appear that the Rother Planning Committee has started to fully appreciate the environmental agenda.