We object to the land between NBAR and the Combe Valley Countryside Park, highlighted on the plan attached, being included in the strategic gap, as highlighted in our representations in relation to development boundaries and the BEX1 allocation. This land is in our opinion well suited to employment use development.

The area is visually self-contained and free of both ecological and topographical constraints, being bounded on three sides by landscape features including a strong ridge line and ancient woodland, which would conceal development from view in both Bexhill and Hastings/St. Leonards. It would effectively limit development further into the proposed strategic gap beyond this point owing to the statutory protection offered to ancient woodlands.

We would also query the necessity of a policy of this nature in this location given that the gap between Bexhill and Hastings/St. Leonards is more than 3km and already largely protected by the Combe Haven SSSI covering 2.6km of this gap. We do not feel that there is sufficient justification to exclude this land from the development allocations given the land's potential as one of the best serviced employment use development sites in East Sussex.

It should be remembered that the urban extension to the north and the north east of Bexhill is so located because the settlement is constructed to the north by the High Weald AONB and to the west by the Pevensey Levels SAC. Given the above it seems unnecessary to constrain development in this area which is by virtue or natural constraints incapable of joining with the Hastings/ St. Leonards settlement.

We feel that inclusion of the land identified in the first paragraph in the local plan as part of a larger employment allocation designed to benefit fully from significant public infrastructure investment and absence of any identifiable development constraints on the site would be more in keeping with the principle of sustainable development and the general development principles set out in Saved Policy GD1 of the 2006 Rother District Local Plan, and would welcome a decision by the council to allocate the land for these purposes.