Public outcry against plan for hundreds of homes on Kent-Sussex border
A petition against plans to build 355 homes around the Kent and East Sussex border, which would see Tunbridge Wells Rugby Football Club relocate, has gathered 1,375 signatures.
As KentLive previously reported, the club would move to a new site 1km down the A267 Frant Road and on its current pitch, 166 homes and a cricket pitch would be built.
And 189 homes would be built on Pinewood Farm, on the opposite side of the road. Tunbridge Wells Borough Council said the site was "almost entirely" in East Sussex, apart from the rugby club's land, which is in Kent and stretches across to Bayham Road.
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The planning applications, which are expected to include a 120-place children's nursery and a 70-bed care home, are likely to be submitted in the spring. The petition was signed by nearly 1,000 people within days of launching, and now it is on the way to the next target of 1,500.
Emma van Rooyen is behind the petition, which calls on Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, Wealden District Council and Frant Parish Council to reject the proposal.
Emma said the "large-scale project" posed "serious concerns for our community". As well as the pressure on infrastructure, she said Frant Road and the surrounding streets were already heavily congested during rush hour.
We reported in August last year how Esquire Developments submitted a screening opinion request to Tunbridge Wells Borough Council. This is submitted before an application, and asks the council whether or not an environmental impact assessment would be necessary, with the subsequent answer being it was "not required".
Esquire Developments said if it secured planning, building would start in 2025, with it operational in 2030. The rugby club would relocate down Frant Road, but on the opposite side on Chase Farm in Bunny Lane, opposite Tate Fencing.
The change.org petition sets out objections under four headings: traffic and safety; infrastructure overload; environmental destructions; and loss of character.
Summing these up, Emma said: "This large-scale project threatens to harm our community’s character, increase traffic congestion, overwhelm local infrastructure including water, sewage, schooling, doctors surgeries etc, and irreversibly destroy the natural beauty and green spaces that make our area special."
It's a complicated set of proposals on an 86 acres site comprising four parcels of rural land with the A267 Frant Road in the middle, and two on either side.
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council's objected to the proposed allocation of the land in Wealden District Council's Local Plan.
It said the proposals were effectively an "expansion" of Tunbridge Wells town and there was "a lack of planning for the provision of infrastructure, in the areas of education, health, leisure, retail, transportation, fresh water and sewage services".
A spokesperson for Esquire said: “Not only would this provide the club with facilities that are top in class for its rugby and cricket offerings, but it will also give them the ability to secure their long-term future.
“The rugby club is a very important and long-standing part of the community and the new facility will bring a host of benefits to local people.
“It is our full intention to bring forward a scheme that is designed sensitively within its setting, landscape-led and that delivers on the much-needed local housing needs across all tenures both private and affordable.”
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You can read the petition here.