In his January report to the Parish Council, Chairman Alan Marler pointed out that a shortfall in housing land could have direct consequences for Barcombe Parish.
He said:
“The village should be aware that the Lewes District Council (LDC) Local Plan Part 2 has been declared invalid as they cannot provide the required 5-year supply of housing land. This means that they do not have their normal powers to refuse development applications.
A proposed development has now been put in for a large part of the field over the road from the Village Hall. This is roughly a 6 hectare site which could produce 150 houses at the current assumed density of 25 houses per hectare. This is in addition to the 32 houses (Hillside 26 and Bridgelands 6) currently pending a decision from LDC.
This site was refused before, as were another three sites, as noted on the Parish Council website. However, LDC recognise previous refusals may now be reversed in favour of permitted development.
The Parish Council will report back when we receive details.”
He also updated Councillors regarding flooding at Barcombe Mills:
“As a reminder, I contacted the Mechanical Engineering Department at Sussex University at the beginning of last year to ask if they would be interested in designing some form of mechanical alert system for rising flood water. They were very enthusiastic and we had a site visit in February. One student has already worked on a solution, sadly since then the closure of universities has slowed this process down as have the responses from the Environment Agency. Now I need to provide the EA with the weight and size of the monitoring device to fit under the bridge and this is again stopped by the closure of the university.”