The trustees of the Borde Hill Estate and developer Catesby Estates Limited applied to Mid Sussex District Council in October 2013 for outline permission to build 210 homes on 22 hectares of fields and woodland on the urban edge of Haywards Heath.
The Council refused the application in April 2014. In a decision letter dated 12 January (26-page 225 KB PDF), planning inspector David Prentis allowed an appeal against the Council’s decision and granted outline planning permission for the proposed scheme.
The inspector said both parties agreed that the Council was unable to demonstrate a five year supply of deliverable housing land and that a saved policy from the 2004 Mid Sussex local plan (LP), which sought to restrict development outside the built-up area boundary of Haywards Heath, was therefore out-of-date.
Prentis disagreed with the Council's assertion that a saved LP policy that sought to protect the strategic gap between Haywards Heath and neighbouring Cuckfield was not a relevant policy for the supply of housing. The inspector said the policy affected "housing numbers, distribution and location in a significant manner" and was, therefore, a relevant housing policy for the purposes of the National Planning Policy Framework.
Although allowing the appeal would lead to some erosion of the strategic gap, Prentis concluded that this would not result in the coalescence of the settlements or in material harm to their separate identities. The inspector said only limited weight could be given to the fact that the site was within a green corridor proposed within the emerging Haywards Heath neighbourhood plan, which was at an early stage.
Prentis found that the development would cause the loss of "an attractive, albeit undesignated, area of the countryside" and "the enclosed rural nature of part of Balcombe Road". However, the inspector noted that the most significant landscape impacts would be confined to the immediate area and would be reduced by proposed mitigation measures, and that no material harm would be caused to the surrounding Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
The inspector gave limited weight to the loss of 13 hectares of 'best and most versatile' agricultural land under the scheme. He noted that the Council had not challenged the developers' evidence that the development of any land on the edge of Haywards Heath would lead to a similar loss and that developing the isolated appeal site would have little effect on any farm business. He also concluded that no harm would be caused to the significance of nearby heritage assets Borde Hill Park, Borde Hill House and South Lodge under the plans.
Overall, the inspector was satisfied that "the matters weighing in favour of the appeal are sufficient to outweigh the matters weighing against". He gave "substantial weight" to the benefit of providing 210 new homes, including 30% affordable housing, in the context of a "substantial shortfall in housing land supply in Mid Sussex". Also weighing in favour of granting permission were the appeal site's "accessible location", the economic benefits of the scheme and proposed measures to encourage the use of sustainable transport.