29th June 2006

John Jory Esq.,

Chief Executive,

Mid Sussex District Council,

Oaklands, Oaklands Road,

Haywards Heath,

West Sussex. RH16 1SS

Dear Chief Executive,

East Grinstead Area Action Plan Consultation

I wish this to be considered as my submission to the District Council on the APP.

As the local Member of Parliament I am not against development. I accept the need for some development at East Grinstead and I further understand the demands being made by this Government on our County and District Council.

My concerns about this Plan are thus:

1. That the scale of what is proposed is out of all proportion to what East Grinstead can accommodate. It will forever alter the character and the nature of the Town and the area and I am not confident that a development of such scale is a natural fit.

2. Whilst there is clearly a need for traffic relief in East Grinstead none of the routes proposed are in my view satisfactory and are likely to have a wholly unacceptable impact on the landscape, some of which lies in the AONB. I am not satisfied that the claims made for traffic relief will stand up and I believe much more work needs to be done on this.

3. In my view and almost the most important concern; the infrastructure to support a development of this type, by the Mid Sussex District Council’s own calculation in its deficit audit, simply does not exist. The developer is unlikely to be able to afford to pay for the scale of infrastructure improvements that would be required, and the Government has resolutely refused to pay for any infrastructure development improvements. I was profoundly unimpressed by the Minister for Housing and Planning’s attitude when we went to visit her and I am clear that the Government does not intend making substantial investments in our area.

I am further not clear what improvements will be made to the A264 and the A22 and I believe that the impact on junction 10 of the A23 will be severe and that a traffic situation already grim is likely to get worse.

Current infrastructure in Mid Sussex and the wider South East is struggling to cope with the existing level of demand and I see nothing in any of these plans that is going to resolve this particular problem.

In any event the delivery of the number of houses proposed will lead to greater pressures on services already over-stretched including transport, education, health, waste and social infrastructure. Significant investment infrastructure is needed if these proposals are to go ahead.

The whole question of adequate supply for water, not just for now but for future generations, has not been adequately answered; and as you know there are very real concerns about water quality issues with the rate of development across the area.

In my view the Government’s declared policy, and as I understand it, that of the District and County Council, is that the environment should be at the centre of plans for future development. I do not believe that development is necessarily bad for the environment as long as it is in the right place, well designed and built and supported by adequate, functioning long-term infrastructure. Without reliable planning for water supply and sewage, waste disposal and flood risk management our local communities will simply not function properly.

It is my judgement, as the local Member of Parliament, that these proposals command little or no local support or confidence. I am not talking about some of the exaggerated claims of the PRC, but of people’s genuine, profound and understandable anxieties about the devastation of the environment, the unsatisfactory nature of the proposals for the relief roads and the sheer scale and size of what is proposed, which will I understand, increase the size of East Grinstead by 47% over the period of the Plan.

As a further point I am not satisfied with the extent of cross border development: this is well known to have been unsatisfactory for some time and I know that it remains dysfunctional. The project cannot proceed in any event unless these matters are resolved.

I think the Council need to take this plan away and have another look at it to see how the scale can be reduced, the infrastructure improved and the environmental considerations put in pole position.

Incidentally, by my reading of all Government statements this proposal undermines the Government’s drive to improve the quality of life and by any reasonable test, breaches every tenet of sustainability.

On a wider point what is proposed is an allegory for much that is likely to happen in the South East. I think this is too much, too far and needs to be reassessed.

I have raised these matters to do with infrastructure and housing numbers with Ministers on the floor of the House, at meetings and with delegations over the last nine years.

I have had no reassurances as to the anxieties of my constituents or myself.

I refer you to the extremely well regarded and critical reports by the Environmental Audit Select Committee on Sustainable Housing (HC 135-11 and HC 779); the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee’s report on Water Management (HL Paper 191-I) and the report by the ODPM: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Committee on Affordability and the Supply of Housing (HC 703-I).

Finally, there is a real danger, and something which the planning authorities will have to deal with, that the desperately serious trap that low employment areas with inadequate infrastructure and transport links, when taking on substantial new developments, cannot and do not create sustainable communities.

Indeed it will run the danger of creating a high stress dormitory town to the detriment of the quality of life of local residents.

I look forward to hearing of the Council’s deliberations on these matters and urge them, in the profound difficulties that they face, to remember that East Grinstead is a much loved and treasured place with its own unique atmosphere and quality and that quality of place matters just as much as quality of life for now and forever.

Yours sincerley,

Nicholas Soames MP

Enclosures:-

Statement made by Nicholas Soames on the 13th April 2005

Click here for statement

Response to the South East Plan consultation

Click here for response

Click here for repsonse

Letter to Yvette Cooper MP, Minister for Housing and Planning dated the 21st March 2006 together with the Minister’s reply of the 19th May 2006