UPDATED: Major Hailsham Housing Scheme Refused Over Southern Water Concerns

A major Hailsham housing scheme has been refused by Wealden planners over concerns about Southern Water’s ability to cope with additional development. 

On Thursday (August 17), Wealden District Council’s Planning Committee South again considered a reserved matters application on plans to build 220 homes on land to the north of Mill Road. 

The scheme had last been considered by the committee in June, when councillors deferred their decision in hopes of securing more detailed information from Southern Water about the impact of the houses on the local sewerage network. 

In its initial response to the application, Southern Water had acknowledged it would only have sufficient capacity to allow 50 homes to join its network without an increased risk of flooding, but had not raised an objection saying this problem could be resolved through reinforcement works.

While the council received some additional information following the deferral, the water company’s core advice did not change. This failed to satisfy committee members.

Among those to raise concerns was Cllr Neil Cleaver (Lib Dem), who said:

“I know of other development sites which have been given outline planning permission in and around Hailsham where upgrades were supposed to be done.

“Southern Water said they would be done and the residents of that area are still being flooded out with raw sewage every time we have downpours.

“How can we trust Southern Water when they haven’t even stuck a plug up any of these sewers to do a hydraulic test. it’s diabolical. It is disgraceful, I think.”

Cllr Cleaver went on to propose the committee refuse the scheme on the grounds that the development would not provide adequate foul drainage, essentially rejecting the advice of Southern Water.

Officers warned against this approach, saying the committee would be acting unreasonably and going beyond its powers. 

Stacey Robins, the council’s head of planning, said:

“A refusal or even a deferral that triggers an appeal event based around not trusting Southern Water would be unreasonable behaviour. That would trigger a costs application by the developer.

“Now some people in the town, if they were in this room, would say ‘pay the money, we want you to fight this. It doesn’t matter what it costs, you should challenge this.’

“To a degree, we would understand why that point of challenge comes. But when we have exhausted all our powers and indeed gone even further than we would ordinarily have done, there isn’t anywhere you can go with that other than to hand the developer a blank cheque at appeal.

“We will lose an appeal that is based on doubting Southern Water’s word. I can tell you that hand on heart, because we’ve done it before and had to pay costs and expensive costs at that.”

Mr Robins’ concerns were shared by some committee members, who said they feared the council losing its control of the development process. 

They included Cllr Geoffrey Draper (Con) said:

“It would be easy for us to stand on our high horse in this case and say ‘well I’m going to vote for either a further deferment or a refusal.’ It will do us no good, other than hit us hard in our Wealden District Council pocket.”

He added:

“I would hate for us to make a stupid mistake that could be avoided today. I think we’ve got to bite the bullet. We’ve got to agree to this and just trust. Let’s see if our trust is misplaced, I believe it won’t be.”

Ultimately, however, the scheme was refused planning permission on a majority vote.

Under the developer’s plans, 77 of the 220 homes would have been classed as affordable properties. These affordable homes would be made up of: 22 one-bed flats; 14 two-bed flats; 22 two-bed houses; 17  three-bed houses; and  two four-bed houses.

The remaining 143 properties would be made up of 79 three-bed houses and 64 four-bed houses.

The site would also include a retail unit, described as a convenience store. 

For further information on the proposals see application reference WD/2022/1449/MRM on the Wealden District Council website. 

UPDATE August 18.

A spokesman for Southern Water said: “We work closely with Wealden Council holding regular meetings with officers and providing updates.

“We are not a statutory consultee on individual planning matters but have worked closely with the developer to ensure our assets will be fit for purpose.

“Between 2020 and 2025 we are investing £3 billion in protecting the environment, better serving our customers and ensuring a resilient supply of drinking water.”