Barcombe villagers continue campaign against proposals for 70 homes on greenfield site

The group, who posed with the message ‘Barcombe says no’, are against homes being built on land west of Barcombe Mills Road, known as the ‘Blackcurrant Field’.

Gladman Developments Ltd submitted an outline application to Lewes District Council in July 2022 for the erection of up to 70 dwellings, including 40 per cent affordable housing. The outline application was also for public open space, landscaping, sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) and a vehicular access point.

The application was refused on March 13 this year, but the developers have appealed the decision.

Andrew Chapman, a Barcombe resident and one of the campaign organisers against the development, said: “We welcomed Lewes District Council’s original rejection of this proposal and it’s more than disappointing to have to revisit it.”

The appeal public hearing takes place at Barcombe Village Hall on Tuesday, November 14, at 10am. Andrew said local residents and members of the Parish Council will be ‘attending in force’ against the appeal.

Andrew said: “Not only are we defending prime farmland needed for food production but we’re fighting to protect a precious rural landscape – we know that this development won’t stop at 70 homes should it get the green light. Our wildlife and our natural landscape can’t speak for itself. We have to stand up for it.”

People can view the original application using the reference LW/22/0459 at planningpa.lewes-eastbourne.gov.uk.

Campaigners said the site is known locally as the ‘Blackcurrant Field’ because of its connection with Ribena.

Campaigner Louise Alexander said: “Barcombe is a comparatively small village that already suffers infrastructure issues. We have a largely non-existent public transport connection and access to the proposed site is regularly inaccessible due to flooding in the autumn and winter months. Our school, water services, energy services and roads are stretched beyond limit in our area, we should not be adding to these problems. This proposal would increase the size of our village beyond measure. Once again, our local community finds itself pulling together to reiterate how completely insensitive and inappropriate these plans are.”

Campaigner Steff Andrews said: “This is not a case of ‘not in my back yard’. This is a case of ‘wrong site, wrong size’. More than 200 objections were made to the original proposal. We’ll be calling on the Planning Inspectorate to throw this unwanted proposal out.”

Gladman Developments Ltd have been contacted for comment about the appeal.

Their original design and access statement for the homes said the application was for ‘a high quality sustainable development’. It said the new homes would be ‘set within an attractive green infrastructure network’, which would ‘provide a wide range of landscape, ecological and recreational enhancements’. The design and access statement added that existing trees and hedgerows would be retained. It also said recommendations had been set out to deliver ‘ecological enhancement’, including ‘the retention and enhancement of pre-existing habitats, and the creation of new habitats’ to provide new opportunities for wildlife like birds, bats and reptiles.