6 days Ago
A decision on plans connected to a Hastings housing development have been put off to a later date. Hastings Borough Council’s planning committee had been due to consider an application connected with proposals to build five homes on land to either side of Church Street. The application, which has seen opposition from local residents, seeks permission to alter the layout of an already-approved scheme.
The development first secured outline planning consent in 2015, with a detailed reserved matters consent later approved in 2017. While work began on site in 2019, the development stalled “due to a number of reasons.” These included the presence of a Southern Water sewer, which made it impossible to build out the houses in the originally planned layout.
The current application, from Dredco Limited, seeks permission to amend the layout set out by the reserved matters consent, repositioning the proposed houses and a number of parking spaces, as well as removing a shared garage from the site. These changes are expected to overcome the issues preventing the original proposals from moving forward. Planning officers had recommended the changes be approved, as they were considered to be acceptable.
As the meeting began, however, officers informed the committee that consideration of the application was to be deferred until a later date. Eleanor Evans, the council’s head of planning, said the decision was the result of procedural issue arising from an issue with a condition applied to the 2015 outline consent. Ms Evans said: “We are still going to still consider it, but at a later date.
All rights to speak and all opportunities to write-in about it remain as they are. It is just going to be looked at a bit later. “The reason for this, without wanting to overcomplicate it, there are two applications for the site; an outline consent and a reserved matters consent.
Together they create one permission. “That permission has already been granted but the applicant wants to vary both of those to try and address some issues on site.” She added: “One of the late comments we received about the application that was going to come to this committee tonight noted that the outline consent has an error in one of its conditions.
“We had a look. We agreed. We now need to revoke that permission, which means we need to go to the secretary of state and go through a very formal process to get that condition modified.
That process takes a minimum of two months ...
but we cannot approve the reserved matters until the outline is sorted out. “So we have no choice procedurally but to defer this first item.” Objectors have argued the amended proposals will have a negative impact on residents living in Greville Road.
Objectors presented the council with a petition opposing the plans, which has been signed by 23 people. In addition, the council received two individual letters of objection from two households. In this correspondence, the objectors have raised concerns about the loss of the green space, the potential impact on wildlife and the potential for loss of privacy, among other matters.
Objectors also disputed whether the proposals had been legally made, pointing to a land ownership certificate submitted by the applicant. Officers investigated this claim and confirmed the application had been completed correctly. For further information on the proposals see application reference HS/DS/24/00612 on the Hastings Borough Council website.
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