18th June 2025
June 2025 update
Earlier this month, we issued a short email advising that Fairfax have submitted further documentation in support of planning applications (DM/23/2866 and 2867 Ansty Farm site) and that we would contact you again with our suggestion on how to respond. Since that time we have also learnt (contrary to what we had been told) that the District Plan has been rejected; this is currently being challenged by MSDC and further details are available on their website District Plan Review - Examination - Mid Sussex District Council. The rejection of the District Plan means that MSDC no longer has a 5 year housing supply and we cannot (subject to the outcome of the MSDC challenge) use the argument that the Ansty Farm site is not part of the District Plan and should therefore be rejected. That said, our main objection has always been and still remains that this site is not sustainable and that this remains true regardless of perceived housing need. Any examination of this site by Council or by the Planning Inspectorate if it goes to appeal will depend upon a careful balancing of the benefits of this development as opposed to the harms it will cause. We must in our objections therefore make it clear that the benefits are far outweighed by the harms.
SCAG, the Cuckfield Society and the Ansty & Staplefield and Cuckfield Parish Councils continue to work together to fight these planning applications and we have again been in touch with our planning consultants for assistance with our response. Their view is that the latest round of documentation makes no significant changes and the planning applications continue to be ones that should be rejected. We do not yet have their full response, but in view of the tight timescale for replies (the deadline is 28th June) we are keen that as many of you as possible write again to MSDC to express your continued objection to the Fairfax planning applications. Reasons for objection might include (but are not limited to) the following.
1. The site is not sustainable. The Ansty Farm proposal is not an extension to either the established settlements of Ansty or Cuckfield but is instead an unrelated dormitory housing estate situated well away from existing facilities. These facilities include but are not limited to, Schools, Retail, GP provision, employment opportunities, sporting provision and public transport.
Although Fairfax have promised these in their master plan they cannot provide any evidence as to how this would be done. The facilities described are not in their gift to provide but are dependent on other outside bodies none of which have made any definitive statement in support of it or a business plan to achieve it. Likewise retail provision is dependent on there being sufficient local customers to support it. The size of the development is such that only the most basic general store would be viable.
2. Because the site is not sustainable, there would be an inevitable increase in the volume of traffic using the already congested local road network. As parents take their children to school, go to the shops, travel for work or leisure there is no realistic alternative but to use private motorised transport. The alternative of "active" travel by foot or bicycle is unrealistic as the distances are too far and the danger from the surrounding roads is too great.
The evidence by Fairfax that the road network can be engineered to ensure traffic moves freely is disputed and widely ridiculed by independent transport analysts and by West Sussex's Highways own modelling.
3. Multiple Harms to high quality natural and historic landscapes. The natural and built historic landscapes (which contain best and most versatile farming land) includes ancient woodland, ghyll valleys/streams, wildlife and a substantial number of grade 1 or 2 listed properties that rely for their context on this ancient landscape. There is also an impact on dark skies and the view from the High Weald and the South Downs. It should also be noted that any re-engineering of the surrounding road network to accommodate additional traffic will involve the wholesale clearance of habitat rich hedgerows and trees from the roadside verges.
4. The Proposed Country Park or Parkland reserve is not a serious mitigation for the loss of biodiversity net gain on the development site. The proposal to create a Parkland Reserve was allegedly inspired by Sir Charles Burrell's wilding work at Knepp. Sir Charles however has ridiculed this claim and made it clear that the proposals by Fairfax are not credible. Fairfax have also not been able to explain how the management of this land would be carried out, how it would be paid for and what the governance structure would be. The whole project is also entirely contrary to their other claim that this land (Beechy Bottom) is a recreational facility for the people of the new development. If the land is to be 'wilded', access has to be restricted and therefore cannot serve as a "country park".
5. This development would represent a creeping coalescence between Cuckfield and Ansty. Despite the fact that the development is related to neither the category 4 settlement of Ansty or the category 2 settlement of Cuckfield it nonetheless effectively coalesces the two. It is the worst of all possible worlds.
6. There is no benefit to existing residents, only to developers. Fairfax claims that in the provision of affordable homes they are providing for desperate local need, but the reality, as shown by our evidence, is that they are doing the bare minimum allowed and nothing more. This is also against a backdrop of MSDC having met their housing targets in previous years, i.e. a speculative development in an area that would cause such damage and is not outweighed by the benefits.
HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR OBJECTIONS
To submit your objections electronically, please use the links below and follow the instructions provided :
To send a letter the address is the Planning Department, Oaklands Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex, RH16 1SS or email to planninginfo@midsussex.gov.uk quoting application DM/23/2866 and DM/23/2867 with your name and address.