Question 7 re. meeting development demands in ways responsive to local and global environmental considerations

Comment

Representation ID: 18527

Received: 06/12/2006

Respondent: Wm. Morrison Supermarkets Plc

Agent: Peacock & Smith Ltd

Any policies on energy efficiency and sustainable construction measures should clearly recognise the advice in PPS22, should retain sufficient flexibility and should not place unduly onerous requirements on developers.

Comment

Representation ID: 18538

Received: 07/12/2006

Respondent: Kember Loudon Williams Ltd

Agent: Kember Loudon Williams Ltd

As regards managing flood risk, the building of barriers is not an ideal solution. This is now amply demonstrated at Rye, where the flood prevention scheme implemented along Strand Quay in particular, visually and functionally cuts the town off from its maritime past. It is an intrusive and alien feature, which is harmful to the historic townscape. Alternative methods of flood control and flood management should be encouraged.

Comment

Representation ID: 18547

Received: 07/12/2006

Respondent: Hastings and Rother Primary Care Trust

Development should be discouraged that does not use renewable resources. We should insist on buildings that use energy highly efficiently.
Poor air quality should be predicted and identified. Existing and new homes should be protected from sources of air pollution such as traffic. In order to improve air quality green space, water and ventilation and tree planting should be encouraged.
Water resources must also be conserved.
Every opportunity must be given to the community to participate in walking and cycling.

Comment

Representation ID: 18553

Received: 08/12/2006

Respondent: High Weald AONB Unit

Support references to the High Weald AONB. Ideally reference should be made to the High Weald AONB Management Plan 2004 and the specific approach to conserving and enhancing and 5 major components of natural beauty.

Specific design guidance reflecting the locally distinctive character of the High Weald would assist in promoting local environmental architectural quality.

Wood fuel is a particularly abundant local supply of renewable energy and is readily available. Promotion of wood fuel should be a priority

Comment

Representation ID: 18604

Received: 30/01/2007

Respondent: Etchingham Parish Council

Good air quality and overall environmental quality results in a better quality of life (mental and physical) with reduces demand for health services.
Sustainable buildings are essential. Renewable energy (wind, solar) should be encouraged to reduce overall energy demand.

Architectural heritage is greatly valued throughout the district and its preservation is important to preserve the district’s character. Careful design can develop variation with the aim of achieving sustainable buildings. Some Scandinavian design buildings have received consent on sustainability grounds but these need careful placing in the landscape.

Comment

Representation ID: 18614

Received: 31/01/2007

Respondent: Ewhurst Parish Council

Green belts need to be maintained to protect natural built and historic environments and flood plains preserved to continue to provide an important level of protection for inhabited environments. Rye and Battle's historic built environments are being damaged by traffic volume and weight.

Comment

Representation ID: 18631

Received: 31/01/2007

Respondent: Rye Conservation Society

The natural and built environment are separate issues which require separate analysis and policy formulation.

Comment

Representation ID: 18638

Received: 31/01/2007

Respondent: Rye Conservation Society

Locating new housing in/around conurbations provides the best opportunity and cost-effectiveness for managed neighbourhood energy schemes.

The use, maintenance and care of infrastructure and public areas contribute to quality of life. This sense of place engenders public respect for and identification with the built environment and is instrumental in combating vandalism. The Core Strategy should contain commitments to improving the architectural landscape of towns and villages.
Dumping of waste in the countryside should be more actively discouraged.

New building design should achieve and emphasise contextual relationship with existing historic buildings, though not necessarily imitating in pastiche the historic idiom.

Comment

Representation ID: 18656

Received: 01/02/2007

Respondent: Croudace Strategic Ltd

Agent: Charles Planning Associates Limited

The Core Strategy may beneficially include a policy requiring development to conserve and enhance natural, built and historic environment quality, taking account of site-specific considerations and other benefits outweighing potential development impacts.

Change will be required to meet sustained growth and regeneration objectives. The Strategy should identify this relationship to avoid development delays.

Some developments may appropriately include energy conservation/generation methods beyond Building Regulation requirements, provided the development is not rendered unviable. The Strategy should encourage but not require the inclusion of such technologies to avoid delay in housing delivery.

Comment

Representation ID: 18673

Received: 02/02/2007

Respondent: Fairview New Homes Ltd.

Agent: RPS Planning

Re. Renewable energy. Energy and sustainable issues should not stifle regeneration and development. Such initiative are often a cost to developers. Specific policy requirements could make some schemes unviable and housing sites may not come forward.

Where difficult sites are being regenerated and the cost are significant, other issues may be more important. The viability of delivering schemes must be a priority. Sustainability and renewable energy requirements should be considered on a site by site basis.

Comment

Representation ID: 18674

Received: 02/02/2007

Respondent: Fairview New Homes Ltd.

Agent: RPS Planning

Fairview New Homes acknowledge that new developments should seek the highest standard of design possible. However, Fairview New Homes would recommend that any policy that comes forward ensures that the wording of such a policy provides clarity in terms of the definition of 'High Standard of Design'. PPS1 (Planning and Sustainable Design) states that Planning Authorities should prepare robust policies on design and the PPS identifies good standards of design with regards to issues such as access and the built environment. These should be referred to in any policy.

Comment

Representation ID: 18682

Received: 02/02/2007

Respondent: Rastrum Ltd.

Agent: DMH Stallard

Rother can support the more sustainable movement of goods around the country and Europe by supporting the expansion of Rye Harbour as a commercial port. This will also have the effect of helping to satisfy the demand for employment.

Comment

Representation ID: 18689

Received: 02/02/2007

Respondent: Mr. A. Miskin

Agent: DMH Stallard

The aims of these policies are important, and are supported. However these policies need to strike the balance between protecting the environment and providing for the needs of people (i.e. housing). Therefore there needs to be some leeway in terms of which areas can be developed and for what purposes.

Comment

Representation ID: 18699

Received: 02/02/2007

Respondent: Sussex Gardens Trust

The District’s built and cultural heritage contributes to the area’s local distinctiveness and overall character and its tourist resource making a valuable economic. Historic Parks and Gardens are a particular interest for their intrinsic value and as a setting for historic buildings. There are many more of local significance.

The historic inheritance adds to the quality of life and is an important resource for the local economy. New development should respect the character and scale of historic facilities, their landscape setting and public views. Building should not be a pastiche. High quality development should respect and enhance the area’s character.

Comment

Representation ID: 18700

Received: 02/02/2007

Respondent: Sussex Gardens Trust

The European Landscape Convention will become law in 2007 and should be mentioned. It is based on the premise that landscape, whatever quality, whether rural or urban, built or natural, should be recognised, understood and fully integrated into policy and decision making. Landscape has important cultural, ecological, environmental and social dimensions and is a key element in achieving sustainable development.

Comment

Representation ID: 18701

Received: 02/02/2007

Respondent: Sussex Gardens Trust

· Policies should support the retention of listed structures and registered landscapes, and control demolition, extension, alteration and inappropriate change of use.
· Ensure proposals do not harm the setting, curtilage and historic context of listed structures or landscapes.
· Support the recognition of historic landscapes of district importance.
· Require the historic and architectural evaluation of an historic structure or landscape to ensure the planning decisions are based on proper understanding.
· Secure the retention of distinctive local features.
· Ensure farm buildings’ historic interest and landscape and setting character are retained in change of use or conversion proposals.

Comment

Representation ID: 18714

Received: 05/02/2007

Respondent: UK Land Investments Group

Agent: rd Planning & Land

We have perused the Core Strategy Issues & Options and overall, consider that it represents a robust strategic approach to development in the District up to 2026.

Comment

Representation ID: 18722

Received: 08/02/2007

Respondent: English Village Projects

Agent: Evison & Company

The theme considered in this section relates to the quality of the built and natural environment. With regard to the built environment, there is undue complacency about its quality (see, for example, paragraph 3.19). Much damage has been done in the towns and villages by permitting poorly located and/or inappropriately designed development. Such development should not be conserved; indeed enhancement must, in large measure, be dependent upon its removal and replacement, where appropriate, with development of acceptable quality.

Comment

Representation ID: 18732

Received: 08/02/2007

Respondent: Mr Basil Streat

Can we not intimate strongly to developers that we do not need more homes in restricted spaces? Can we not insist that in this Edwardian town of Bexhill, new buildings should respect their surroundings?

Comment

Representation ID: 18735

Received: 08/02/2007

Respondent: Highways Agency

Concerning air quality, the HA will need to consider whether development within the Local Development Framework (LDF) will cause a compliance problem from 2010, or make an existing forecast compliance problem worse. The HA may need to consider making representations in respect of the legality of the proposals and the soundness of the LDF.

Where the LDF relies on measures on the strategic road network, the HA may not be able to deliver these if the measures/development which they were intended to enable, would cause a compliance problem, whether or not the problem is in the vicinity of the trunk road.

Comment

Representation ID: 18747

Received: 09/02/2007

Respondent: Bexhill and District Gardens & Allotments Society

Conflict in reconciling increased building and a better quality of life. AONB if it is to be gradually built over will damage quality of life.

Reduce carbon dioxide, lead and other emissions from businesses which pollute the natural environment and in the case of gardens and allotments thereby enter the food chain.

What is the point in development and trying to achieve a better quality of life if in doing so you restrict or destroy the natural environment you are professing to protect.

Need to preserve nature conservation, woodland and agricultural areas. More tree preservation orders needed.

Comment

Representation ID: 18767

Received: 09/02/2007

Respondent: East Sussex County Council

The aim should be for high environmental performance from new build, in line with RPG9 Policy INF4. The County Council has published a SPD on Construction and Demolition Waste which encourages greater resource efficiency in the use of materials and subsequent reduction of landfill waste.
Department for Education and Skills’ guidelines for new schools include the need to plan sustainably and to increasingly apply BREEM and Design Quality Indicator assessment methods.

The location of development also has a bearing on this issue and issues such as flood risk and environmental designations should be observed in the allocation of land.

Comment

Representation ID: 18778

Received: 09/02/2007

Respondent: Home Builders Federation

The HBF object to the application of Lifetime Home standards through planning policy. This should be a matter progressed through the upgrading of the Building Regulations

Comment

Representation ID: 18780

Received: 09/02/2007

Respondent: Home Builders Federation

Developers should have the opportunity to meet a 10% on-site renewable policy in the most practical way possible, taking account of available technologies and site constraints.

Developers could make proportionate contributions to community based renewable energy schemes, benefiting existing and new housing. The planning authority should identify the potential opportunities in a given location for community renewable schemes.
LDF energy efficiency policies will duplicate, circumvent and potentially exceed building regulations. There is a problem of inconsistency between different authorities’ policies. A universal policy basis will encourage the market to deliver innovation. Fundamentally, this is a matter for the energy industry.

Comment

Representation ID: 18793

Received: 12/02/2007

Respondent: Government Office for the South East

Has any thought been given to including a specific policy on renewable energy to take advantage of potential opportunities for using/managing the extensive area of woodland in the District to provide a source of/supply chain for wood fuel (and other wood products) for generating renewable energy locally? There could be associated potential benefits of more rural employment and improved woodland biodiversity and recreation access.

Comment

Representation ID: 18800

Received: 12/02/2007

Respondent: Mr. Edward Echlin

We would like to see more emphasis on the environment in this document.

Comment

Representation ID: 18812

Received: 13/02/2007

Respondent: AmicusHorizon Ltd (Rother Homes)

The main physical requirements of new housing are comfort; security; and economy of fuel use. All new affordable housing schemes are built to minimum internal floor area sizes and many are built to Eco-Homes 'Very Good' standard which requires enhanced insulation and intrinsic fuel economy. We are also looking at including further efficiency measures such as rainwater harvesting and solar panels.

Comment

Representation ID: 18813

Received: 13/02/2007

Respondent: AmicusHorizon Ltd (Rother Homes)

It is considered that all new development needs to' fit in' with the existing environment (ie be built to the village vernacular).

Regarding the locations in which new affordable housing is built, it needs to help sustain community life and needs access to facilities (see comments elsewhere).

Comment

Representation ID: 18830

Received: 13/02/2007

Respondent: RSPB

We recommend the inclusion of the following wording:

1) Development likely to adversely affect SSSIs which cannot be avoided or minimised will not normally be permitted, unless the benefits of the development at this site clearly outweigh the impacts on this site and the national SSSI network
2) The Council will take all reasonable opportunities to conserve or enhance the special interests of SSSI through the planning system.

Further criteria against which proposals on or effecting local wildlife sites will be judged is also recommended

Comment

Representation ID: 18835

Received: 13/02/2007

Respondent: Mr Christopher Strangeways

Much of the declared strategy for Rother to meet its housing targets is dependant on the construction of the link road. This road and associated development on Greenfield land is not sustainable development, and there are other ways of meeting the housing requirements. The strategy fails to address the need for a comprehensive infrastructure within the District to deal with waste recovery and recycling.