Schedule of Main Modifications and changes to Policies Maps

The amendment being proposed would provide sufficient flexibility should a doctor's surgery be incapable of being delivered, and is therefore supported in principle.

However, it remains an onerous requirement in addition to the requirement for 40% affordable housing and 50% age-restricted units. The policy remains undeliverable as a result of it being unviable and the council has not provided any evidence to justify all of these requirements. The viability of the policy as a whole was not tested in the Three Dragons Viability Assessment (October 2018) and no further evidence was presented at the hearing sessions or indeed as part of the Main Modifications. If all three requirements continue to be Rother's aspirations for the site, either this needs to be justified through additional viability evidence, or the policy should provide sufficient flexibility to enable this matter to be explored further during the course of a planning application.

Site FAC2 remains undeliverable as a result of the onerous policy requirements making it unviable, and this is of significant concern to Welbeck as it progresses its pre-application discussions with Rother for a policy-compliant scheme.

We request that a further amendment is made to either the policy wording or pre-text to provide flexibility should a viability appraisal submitted with a planning application demonstrate that all three policy requirements cannot be met.

The Detail Map (No.9) supporting policy FAC2 for Land East of Waites Lane, Fairlight Cove has been amended following an objection we made at Regulation 18 stage and subsequently at the Matter 7 hearing sessions, regarding the amount of land available within the red line to accommodate the access road.

This was debated at the relevant hearing session where Kal Kamboh, representing ESCC Highways, agreed with us that the access road would need to be set at a perpendicular angle to Pett Level Road. Ms Kamboh said that she did not have technical drawings to hand to be able to comment on how much additional land would be required, and guessed at a figure of 10m. No further work appears to have been carried out by either Council to confirm how much additional land would be required, and the proposed amendment does not address our previous objection.

The revised Detail Map presented in Main Modification PMM5 continues to show the access road in a straight line parallel to the boundary with Robincroft, albeit with an additional 10m strip of land now included within the red line boundary. Welbeck Strategic Land commissioned a highways drawing (See 101466-SK-003 Rev B accompanying these representations) following our instructions to the consultants to see if a viable access could be achieved within the revised red line boundary. The drawing shows the tracking of a large vehicle exiting the site, which would swing out onto the other side of the road, causing a hazard to other road users. Welbeck then instructed the consultants to prepare a drawing showing a viable access which would prevent this situation from happening - please see accompanying drawing 101466-SK-003 Rev D. The road labelled 'Revised Rother Local Plan Allocation' on this drawing utilises the gap between the poplar trees - which we have already demonstrated as being the most suitable location for an access and which achieves the required visibility splays with minimal landscape impact (and has been supported by ESCC Highways as part of the current planning application). The required perpendicular angle is also achieved, with the road curving westwards towards the allocated field as tightly as possible in order to minimise landscape impact. This arrangement would allow sufficient space for a refuse or larger vehicle to manoeuvre without significantly swinging out onto the opposite side of the carriageway of the access road. As demonstrated in 101466-SK-003 Rev B, a lower radii of the access road would result in more instances of larger vehicles swinging out, which could present an issue in road safety terms.

Welbeck Strategic Land are currently entering into discussions with Rother Council regarding a policy-compliant scheme under policy FAC2, but see this issue as a significant constraint to delivery. We would be grateful if both councils would take the time to review drawing 101466-SK-003 Rev D and consider revising the red line boundary to make sure that a viable access road can be accommodated, and to prevent unnecessary complications when a planning application is eventually submitted. As it stands, there is no evidence to justify the position of the amended red line boundary, and the site remains undeliverable as a result.

Drawing 101466-SK-003 Rev B - http://www.rother.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=32373

Drawing 101466-SK-003 Rev D - http://www.rother.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=32374