On 17th July the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Hazel Blears, published 450 pages of recommended changes to the all-powerful South East Plan. Lurking in the midst of this weighty document was a potentially devastating paragraph specifically relating to Forest Row.
“Where development is planned close to administrative boundaries, for example East Grinstead, neighbouring authorities will take the necessary steps to ensure that essential infrastructure is put in place to support development.”
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.
A senior highways engineer for East Sussex County Council advised us earlier this year that extending this relief road onto Ashdown Forest would cost approximately £60M, and since there wouldn’t be any financial contribution from the government, it could only be financed by housing developers.
Learning the lessons
When East Grinstead residents were encouraged to support proposals for easing their traffic congestion with a relief road several years ago, no one explained that it would involve covering Imberhorne Farm and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty to the west with 2500 houses to pay for it. The idea grew wheels and quickly turned into a development juggernaut that residents are now desperately trying to stop, not least because traffic modelling studies have shown that it will not deliver the traffic relief originally promised.
We should learn from their mistake! But the Secretary of State is now trying to force us to follow their example in order to conform with the East Grinstead scheme, to make it work, and to deliver large house building quotas throughout the South East.
How many houses would be required in Forest Row?
Amongst the other proposed changes to the South East Plan was a 37% increase in the number of new houses Wealden will be expected to provide, up from 8,000 to 11,000. At this stage it’s impossible to say for sure exactly how many houses we’d have to build around Forest Row to finance a Relief Road extension, but it hardly bears thinking about when you consider that the village currently comprises around 1800 dwellings, and it would require approximately another 2000 to finance the construction of a major highway into technically challenging terrain, plus the essential community facilities that would be needed to support the influx of new residents.
What can you do?
The Secretary of State’s proposal is the subject of a public consultation that ends on 24th October. WGP are looking for one volunteer in every road / street in each of the villages in North Wealden to be an agent for the campaign by distributing a copy of a leaflet / petition, and providing a convenient drop off / pick up point for the family petition slips for that road.
Please contact us on 01342 826 896 if you would like to volunteer to be the distributor / collector for your road. We will provide you with a batch of leaflets specific to your road with your address quoted as the drop off point – or the central drop off points if more convenient.
One little paragraph could do an awful amount of damage if it ends up in the South East Plan, our first priority is to stop that from happening. What we need instead is a sensible and sustainable volume of new housing for both East Grinstead and North Wealden, and a sensible and sustainable improvement to community infrastructure to support it.
This will be the subject of a separate community questionnaire being distributed shortly.
