Slinfold development refused due to conflicts with neighbourhood plan

The application, which included eight affordable houses and a two-storey cricket pavilion with parking for 25 cars, attracted 68 letters of objection from the public and was given a firm thumbs down by the planning committee.

Only the proposed access to the site was on the table at the meeting on Tuesday (November 3) and it fell at the first hurdle.

The plan was to widen a private track off of Lyons Road to 5.5m to give two-way access to the new homes – but it was described as ‘unacceptable’ by some and ‘excessively wide’ by others.

Chairman Liz Kitchen said: “It seems to me that one of the many concerns about this development is turning what is effectively a private drive into a full highway with an area coming out on to the [road].”

There were a number of other concerns, not least of which was the feeling that the plans ran contrary to the Slinfold Neighbourhood Plan.

The site was allocated for development within that plan.

Chris Leyland, of Slinfold Parish Council, told the meeting that, while the parish supported development on the site, what was being offered was ‘significantly different’ to the plans originally presented to the village.

He added: “The now proposed size of the access road was never part of the original detail presented to the village and does not hold true to the principles in the Neighbourhood Plan.”

He was supported by Tricia Youtan (Con, Itchingfield, Slinfold & Warnham) who said the application bore ‘very little resemblance’ to what had been allowed for in the plan.

It was an issue which did not sit well with several members.

Toni Bradnum (Con, Nuthurst & Lower Beeding) said: “If we’re not going to follow the Neighbourhood Plans then there really is very little point in us having them.

“The Neighbourhood Plan system was brought in in the first place to protect villages and rural communities and I can’t see much evidence of that.”

Other concerns centred around the size and number of the homes.

The application was refused by 19 votes to one with four abstentions, on the grounds that the proposed access road would have ‘an unacceptably hard and urbanising impact on the rural character of Lyons Road’.

Mrs Youtan, who lives in the village, told the meeting that she would not declare a personal or prejudicial interest in the matter as ‘it does not affect me or my family’s wellbeing or financial position to any greater extent than anyone else in the village’.