Rother Local Plan 2020-2040 (Regulation 18)

Comment

Representation ID: 27413

Received: 22/07/2024

Respondent: Catsfield Parish Council

The proposed development sites and scales does negatively impact in the HWNL. Small level of growth can work but the scales proposed (100%+) will overwhelm the village and not meet the stated objectives of the vision.

Comment

Representation ID: 27414

Received: 22/07/2024

Respondent: Catsfield Parish Council

Fig 21 & 22. Several polices are driven by employment growth to support development, but the only employment growth potential is within Battle. Does our cluster with Battle help Catsfield, and why such a high allocation (60), only Westfield has higher targets. Appropriate development in Villages in this cluster is fine, but the balance and scale of development across all villages must be fair and not substantially impact the existing communities. A cap of the size of developments relative the local area
(e.g where that will be built rather than relative to the whole parish) is needed. Anything over 20% would be difficult to assimilate.

Comment

Representation ID: 27415

Received: 22/07/2024

Respondent: Catsfield Parish Council

The assumption is that the villages in the cluster will benefit from being able to access the central town (Battle) for services. This assumption needs to be challenged and have supporting evidence. The scale of development if it is to enable clusters to work needs to apply equitably to all villages in the cluster but that is not the case in the sites identified in the HELLA. Why is Catsfield allocated a high quota of development, while other villages have none? Why can we not have more smaller scale developments spread over the area to achieve the same growth and meet the objectives of clustering? Not all residents want to live in the village centre, but they should all be considered to benefit from the planning objectives. This plan over focusses on the village centre, without delivering the stated benefits of ecology, living better, transport etc. A wider spread of smaller scale developments within the cluster area would be better place to deliver benefits without damaging the HWNL and have the same impact on the objectives of employment and transport as larger scale development without overwhelming any existing settlement. In what scale and context do the villages depend on Battle for Key services? What are these key services? Where is the data to support this statement? How will the proposed developments deliver this? Smaller and sensitive development yes, but the proposals are not small of sensitive for Catsfield.

Comment

Representation ID: 27416

Received: 22/07/2024

Respondent: Catsfield Parish Council

The population of parishes is not all centred on villages. Many residents live in areas beyond the villages but are not linked to farming and agriculture. It is a mistake to develop policies that will urbanise rural village centres. The vision needs to be for the whole of the Parish and not focussed on developing village centres with the mistaken assumption that more housing centrally will enable lower use of cars, increase use of public transport or local walking to services.

Comment

Representation ID: 27417

Received: 22/07/2024

Respondent: Catsfield Parish Council

Smaller developments with a wider spread. It is Ok to develop new smaller scale housing outside of village centres. It’s how rural life works. Large scale development is ruining rural life. Use exception planning to develop affordable housing on low value agricultural land.

Comment

Representation ID: 27418

Received: 22/07/2024

Respondent: Catsfield Parish Council

Development boundaries are fine but in the current local plan the boundary was changed to allow development of one of the proposed sites in the village CAT0001. If the boundaries are changed to suit the plan what is the point of setting boundaries? A key objective of boundaries is to protect surrounding countryside, but small scale development outside of the boundaries and not in village centres will not necessarily have a negative impact. The key is appropriate development where it fits to suit the needs of all people, not the shoehorning of larger scale developments into village centres either within current boundaries or by changing boundaries to fit the plan.

Comment

Representation ID: 27419

Received: 22/07/2024

Respondent: Catsfield Parish Council

The plan recognises that smaller sites do form an important part of the housing supply, and that these sites will often be identified via Neighbourhood Plans and that a significant percent of the planned house building will be from smaller sites. However, a large number of sites built over the past years in Catsfield of less than five houses do not count toward the targeted number of houses to be built. Catsfield has a higher than average number of these windfall sites but still has a higher than average target for building on larger sites. This disadvantages Catsfield or other villages by not recognising these smaller developments, unless they are part of a neighbourhood plan. This policy is therefore not equitable and does need to be adjusted to recognise parishes with high windfall percentages being built and to reduce (or not allocate land in the plan) targets set to recognise total developments achieved. So yes, target more than 10% and do so by recognising where local building on smaller sites has already contributed to the targets and can continue to do so, even when there is no NP.

Comment

Representation ID: 27420

Received: 22/07/2024

Respondent: Catsfield Parish Council

Yes, there should be clear evidence that capacity is in place before developments can be approved.

Comment

Representation ID: 27421

Received: 22/07/2024

Respondent: Catsfield Parish Council

It should not be possible to approve new development with better access and speeds to internet than for other local existing developments

Comment

Representation ID: 27422

Received: 22/07/2024

Respondent: Catsfield Parish Council

It should not be possible to approve new development with better access and speeds to internet than for other local existing developments