A group of more than seventy Forest Row residents gathered at the northern entrance to the village on Friday (19th September) to launch a petition objecting to the Secretary of State, Hazel Blears’ recent proposal that neighbouring councils “will take the necessary steps to ensure that essential infrastructure is put in place” to support the East Grinstead development of 2500 houses and a relief road.
Leading the campaign District Cllr David Jonas said: “There are two possible ways to interpret these words, neither of which are acceptable. Either she expects us to facilitate a relief road that terminates north of the village at the Brambletye Bends, which would lead to a substantial increase in traffic through our village, or she’s expecting us to extend the proposed East Grinstead Relief Road past Forest Row onto Ashdown Forest. The only likely source of finance for a technically challenging and expensive extension onto the forest would be developer contributions from an excessive volume of new housing around Forest Row, similar in scale to the 2500 required in East Grinstead to finance their relief road.
The proposal was included in a 450 page report of proposed changes to the South East Plan published in July, which is the subject of a public consultation ending on 24th October. The South East Plan determines what kind and how much development will take place in the South East region up until 2026. The same report recommended that the number of new houses to be built in the Wealden district should be increased from 9,600 to 11,000, and a similar increase in Mid Sussex from 15,000 to 18,000 during that period.
“In the battle to prevent excessive housing development being imposed on East Grinstead, the spotlight has now turned onto North Wealden.” said Cllr Jonas. “The East Grinstead development could not be considered sound in planning terms if it simply dumped an increased level of traffic across the border with no infrastructure to cope with it. But a relief road extended directly onto Ashdown Forest would also not be sound in planning terms, because it would violate multiple national and international environmental designations. Even though the proposal makes no sense at all, we’re still being bullied by the Secretary of State to deliver it! There’s a lot at stake on both sides of the county border, and we’re fighting back!”
The petition will be available in shops such as The Seasons in Forest Row, and distributed by volunteers to individual households throughout the village. The group is organising a similar launch and distribution to take place in Nutley and Hartfield, both of which would be seriously affected if the proposals went ahead according to Cllr Jonas.
