What is our vision?
By means of publicity, fund raising and the commissioning of expert reports, we intend to demonstrate that the Ansty Farms site is utterly unsuited for residential and commercial development. As such we support the decision to remove the site from the draft District Plan, and we will continue to campaign to ensure that the developer does not persuade the Council or planning inspectorate to bring it back.
We support and have championed organic and sustainable local development as evidenced by our democratically approved Neighbourhood Plans rather than a top down imposition of housing based on no more than the chasing of an arbitrary housing target.
What have we been doing?
SCAG has commissioned four expert reports so far with the aim of building a professional evidence-base case to challenge the assertion that the Ansty Farms site is a sustainable location for 1,600 new homes, light industry, shops etc.
The first two cover Landscape Assessment studies of the main housing site and the so-called Country Park — already an accessible Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Our highly regarded consultant highlights how the unique medieval landscape would be destroyed by a giant housing development.
Our third report is on the crucial area of Transport management and the obvious potential for traffic gridlock on local roads and infrastructure which, most experts agree, are already at capacity with more then 3,500 houses in the pipeline.
The SCAG expert, in line with West Sussex County Council Highways Department, have concluded the site is entirely unsustainable.
In a nutshell, the Cuck-stye development, merging Ansty & Cuckfield, would lead to 9,000 extra traffic movement every day, the very definition of most local motorists' worst nightmare.
That’s apart from the ten years of traffic gridlock while the development is under construction.
Our fourth report has been compiled by a well-regarded national planning consultancy. Whilst this is a work in progress, this draft report has identified substantial evidence to highlight the flawed methodology that led to the Fairfax plan for Cuck-stye.
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