Major Polegate housing development next to A27 approved on appeal by inspector

In a decision notice published on Tuesday (June 27), a planning inspector greenlit plans from developer Taylor Wimpey to build up to 180 houses on land to the north of Jubilee Drive, to the north east of Polegate town centre.

The scheme had been refused by a council planning committee in May last year. The committee at the time said the scheme would be an overdevelopment of an unsustainable location, going against an officer recommendation to approve the scheme.

The planning inspector concluded that this decision should be read as ‘unreasonable behaviour’ as the council did not have evidence to support the committee’s view.

In their decision notice, the inspector said: “Whilst members are entitled to depart from an officer recommendation, this must be for a sound reason. In this case, the overwhelming evidence before members in the Transport Assessment, Travel Plan, comments from the Highway Authority and the officers report [was] that the site would be suitably accessible by sustainable transport modes.

“There is no detailed evidence before me that explains why members decided to depart from this position. As such the planning authority has not been able to show that it had a reasonable basis for this stance.”

The inspector added: “This leads me to conclude that the council has delayed development which clearly should have been permitted, having regard to its accordance with the development plan and all other material considerations. As such this appeal in its entirety should not have been necessary.

“For the reasons given above, unreasonable behaviour resulting in unnecessary or wasted expense has occurred and a full award of costs is therefore warranted.”

As an outline scheme, developers Taylor Wimpey had only been seeking permission for the principle of building houses on the site, with all matters apart from access via Highgrove Crescent to come forward as part of a future application.

The developer has been granted this planning permission as a result of the appeal.

For further details see application reference WD/2021/1637/MAO on the Wealden District Council website.