Please see attached comments on draft Local Plan, including Brede Valley Landscape Assessment and East Sussex Landscape Assessment.

Please see attached comments on draft Local Plan, including Brede Valley Landscape Assessment and East Sussex Landscape Assessment.

Firstly, my congratulations on the clarity and thoroughness of the planning process and the presentation at the exhibition(s).

While I appreciate that you are still at the general planning stages, I believe it is important to include consideration of the following:

1) Infrastructure: (Completion of the link between Queensway and the A21 in St Leonards is essential to support the attraction of potential businesses to the proposed industrial units). The utilities seem to struggle to support the with existing demand e.g. water storage and supply, mobile signal coverage, EV charging etc. Can these be fixed before adding to the burden?

2) Roads: Experience from when the link road was under construction shows that alternative routes receive a punishing load from diverted traffic for which, judging by the damage caused, they were not constructed. No attempt has been made to repair the damage which ought to be part of the overall planning (e.g. Woodsgate Park while the Sidley bridge was rebuilt). Such damage mitigates against the plans for greater use of bicycle transport for instance.

3) Housing density: I understand that the underprovision of parking spaces is deliberate to try to force people to use public transport instead. This does, however, lead to increased use/need to park cars on the roads and pavements hindering pedestrians and those with disabilities, and adding to the sense of claustrophobia caused by the higher density housing - hardly contributing to well-being.

4) Types of accommodation: It is to be hoped that the eventual granting of planning permissions will include the need to include climate friendly elements such as photo-electric roofing on all new builds, subterranean tanks for brown water storage to alleviate rainwater runoff and pressure on the pumped mains water.

5) Need for affordable housing: What is the cause of the pressure? Can we ensure that any such dwellings are used for local people and not swallowed up by private landlords, 2nd home owners or more distant local authorities to fulfil their own housing shortfalls?

6) Location of proposed schools and medical units: Again, this probably belongs further down the line of the planning permissions but, for the former, the safe delivery and collection of students needs to be built into the infrastructure. For the latter, the demographics need to be taken into account. With a significantly high proportion of elderly residents, access to any medical units needs to be on the level, i.e. without steep ramps or steps to negotiate. The Cooden Sea Road surgery fails on both these aspects and parking for the disabled or mobility impaired is also notable by its absence - most parking spaces are taken up by long stay blockers (staff? local shop workers? residents?).

Southern Water is the water supplier to parts of the Rother district and the wastewater service provider across the district. We strongly support water efficiency in the design of new homes, but request changes to this policy to enable implementation of the expected tightening of Building Regulations standards applying to water stressed areas. We explain our reasons further below, also providing evidence to support our request.

Requested changes:
All new dwellings must be designed to achieve the Optional Technical Housing Standard for water efficiency described in Building Regulation G2. Design must also consider potential for future tightening of this standard by targeting use at no more than 100 litres per person per day.

The extent to which a proposal can demonstrate design that will remain water efficient into the future…

Further explanation and justification:
We support the inclusion of the Building Regulations optional standard for water efficiency in this policy. However, although this is currently appropriate to the ‘serious water stress’1 status of the South East, the Government plans to tighten2 this Building Regulations standard. High standards of water efficiency in new developments also equate to greater long-term sustainability, future-proofing our communities to the impacts of climate change. We would therefore ideally like to see tighter water efficiency targets in the design of new homes. This is in line with Southern Water’s ‘Save a Little Water’ programme to consume no more than 100 litres per person per day across our region.
1 Water_stressed_areas___final_classification_2021.odt (live.com)
2 https://database.waterwise.org.uk/knowledge-base/building-regulations-water-efficiency-review/
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ambitious-roadmap-for-a-cleaner-greener-country

The South East region incorporates many environmentally sensitive areas and is classified as an area of ‘serious water stress’. Significant challenges and environmental improvements need to be addressed, while at the same time enabling some of the highest rates of growth in the country. This together with the increasing impacts of climate change expected over time mean we need to significantly reduce our water use. Tackling water scarcity requires a multi-faceted approach and there is an opportunity for the planning system to play a part by ensuring policy requires new development meet the highest standards of water efficiency possible at the time.

There should be clearer and firmer guidance on water management from roofs and driveways including water storage and dispersal other than to main sewers. There should be encouragement of the commercial development of intermediate scale storage between SUDS and water butts.

Please see attached comments from Burwash Parish Council.

Please see attached submission.

Full submission attached.

Please see attached document for the full submission from Westfield Parish Council.