Wellsbridge Estate has applied for permission to build up to 31 houses and flats on a field in London Road in the town.
The plan for a mixture of 1-bedroom flats and 1-4-bed houses, which include 35 per cent ‘affordable housing’, has been submitted to Wealden District Council (WDC).
The application in the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and outside the development boundary for Crowborough has garnered a number of objections from local residents.
WDC has also previously ruled out building on the field saying it ‘would have an unjustified impact on the character and appearance of the attractive and high quality landscape which surrounds Crowborough’.
However, Wellsbridge Estate has argued that because the authority’s local plan is out of date, a ‘tilted balance’ exists ‘as a result of the council’s continued failure to demonstrate a five-year supply of housing land’.
WDC had its local plan – the document that sets out where new houses are to be built – rejected last year after the Planning Inspector found the authority had failed in its legal ‘Duty to Co-operate’ through constructive engagement with neighbouring authorities to meet unmet housing needs.
Neighbouring districts, including Tunbridge Wells Borough Council (TWBC), had complained to the Planning Inspector about Wealden’s lack of co-operation.
TWBC has come under fire for pushing through its local plan, which will see thousands of new homes built in the parish of Capel, including a garden village in Tudeley.
The proposals have caused protests and the formation of campaign group Save Capel.
Meanwhile, both Sevenoaks and Tonbridge have also had their local plans rejected by the Planning Inspector because the two authorities did not co-operate about solving Sevenoaks’ unmet housing needs.
Wealden has subsequently published a revised Housing Action Plan identifying what more they will do to boost the supply of homes, but two-thirds of the district is protected landscapes.
Crowborough Town Council has objected to the London Road development saying WDC should refuse it not only ‘because the plot is inside the AONB [Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’, but also: “The existing traffic issues both immediately outside the site and at the Crowborough Cross will worsen substantially, additionally the traffic survey was conducted on a Sunday morning making it flawed as it did not reflect normal traffic flows outside of the site.”
The planning application for the London Road development goes before WDC’s planning committee later this year, with residents able to submit comments to the committee up to August 29.
