Officers back 12 houses off Hammerwood Road, with £378,146 for schools, a GP surgery and play areas. Register by 1pm Monday to speak at the committee.

Mid Sussex District Council’s planning committee will decide on Thursday 10 September whether to allow twelve houses on land south of Hammerwood Road in Ashurst Wood, the village about two miles east of East Grinstead.

Officers have recommended approval. Anyone who wants to speak at the meeting has to register by 1pm on Monday 7 September.

It is the only application on the agenda.

What is proposed

The scheme, reference DM/25/2474, is for twelve houses reached from the existing cul-de-sac at Yewhurst Close. From the officer’s report:

  • four two-bedroom, four three-bedroom and four four-bedroom houses
  • four of the twelve are affordable, all two-bedroom, on plots 5 to 8 at the front of the site
  • three of those four would be social or affordable rented and one intermediate
  • 31 off-street parking spaces, including three disabled bays
  • vehicle access from Yewhurst Close, not directly off Hammerwood Road
  • cycle stores in every garden, and bins presented at the kerb on collection day

The land is already earmarked for exactly this. It is allocated for twelve homes under policy SA26 of the council’s Site Allocations Development Plan Document, adopted in June 2022. That is the single most important fact in the report, because it is why officers conclude the application “should be approved without delay”.

The site sits in the countryside and inside the High Weald National Landscape, the designation that used to be called the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

£378,146 towards local services

The developer would pay just over £378,000 in section 106 contributions, and unusually the report names where almost every pound is meant to go.

Contribution Amount Where it is to be spent
Strategic SANG (Ashdown Forest mitigation) £63,036 Hill Place Farm, East Grinstead
Primary education £56,970 Ashurst Wood Primary School, or another East Grinstead area school
Secondary education £55,969 Sackville School, or another in the East Grinstead area
Transport and access (TAD) £52,420 Active travel work in Ashurst Wood, including dropped kerbs at Yewhurst Close and the School Lane junction
Play space £45,176 Ashurst Wood Recreation Ground and John Pears Field
GP services £23,742 Moatfield GP Surgery
Community buildings £18,049 Ashurst Wood Village Centre, John Pears pavilion, Recreation Ground pavilion
Formal sports £17,937 Recreation Ground, John Pears Field, Ashurst Wood Community Tennis Club
SAMM (Ashdown Forest monitoring) £14,040 Ashdown Forest access management
Local community infrastructure £12,839 Allotments in Ashurst Wood
Sixth form education £12,089 Sackville School Sixth Form
Libraries £5,879 East Grinstead Library
Total £378,146

Bar chart of the section 106 contributions from the twelve-home Ashurst Wood scheme: SANG £63,036, primary education £56,970, secondary education £55,969, transport and access £52,420, play space £45,176, GP services £23,742, community buildings £18,049, formal sports £17,937, SAMM £14,040, local community infrastructure £12,839, sixth form £12,089 and libraries £5,879, totalling £378,146

The two Ashdown Forest payments, £77,076 between them, are there because the site is inside the 7km zone where new homes are assumed to add recreational pressure to the forest’s protected habitats. Every net new dwelling in that zone pays them.

None of it is banked yet. Officers have asked members to approve a second recommendation as well: if the legal agreement securing the money, the affordable housing and the biodiversity requirements is not signed by 10 December 2026, the application can be refused.

The site would lose biodiversity, then buy it back

The most striking number in the report is not the money. The applicant’s own biodiversity metric shows the development would leave the site with 13.94% less biodiversity than it has now.

Developments have had to deliver a 10% biodiversity net gain by law since 2024. The route here is off-site: the applicant would buy credits from a habitat bank, creating or improving habitat elsewhere to reach the 10% gain in habitat units. Officers accept that as compliant and say the precise scheme can be dealt with by condition.

Trees go too. The arboricultural assessment says 21 individual trees, one group and parts of two more groups would be removed for the development, plus five further trees for arboricultural reasons. Most are category C, meaning low quality. Two are category B. There are no tree preservation orders on the site, and the council’s tree officer does not object, noting the trees along the Hammerwood Road frontage are being kept so the road keeps its semi-rural feel.

What people have said

Seven letters of objection were sent in, one letter of support and one comment. The objections group into four themes:

  • Access and parking. That Yewhurst Close is not a suitable access, that traffic and parking pressure would rise, that parking on the site is stacked so one car blocks another, and that there are no safe cycle routes to nearby villages and towns.
  • Character. That the density is too high for the location and that the rural view from Hammerwood Road would change drastically.
  • Trees and wildlife. That the site is heavily wooded and that the biodiversity loss is significant.
  • Amenity and infrastructure. Privacy, construction lorry noise, and whether local infrastructure can absorb the development.

The letter of support backs more affordable housing in the village.

Ashurst Wood Parish Council does not object. No consultee objects. West Sussex Highways, the lead local flood authority, Natural England, the council’s ecology, archaeology, tree and environmental protection officers and Southern Water all raise no objection, most of them subject to conditions.

On parking, the county’s own calculator says a development this size should have 32 spaces. The scheme has 31. Highways accepts the shortfall because the guidance allows about 10% leeway and two spaces are being re-provided in Yewhurst Close.

How to speak at the meeting, and by when

The committee meets at 4pm on Thursday 10 September in the Council Chamber at Oaklands, Oaklands Road, Haywards Heath, RH16 1SS. Under the council’s planning committee rules:

  • Register to speak by emailing committees@midsussex.gov.uk by 1pm three working days before, which for this meeting is 1pm on Monday 7 September. Say whether you are speaking for or against.
  • Send a copy of your remarks to the same address by 10am on Wednesday 9 September.
  • Each speaker gets three minutes.
  • The Planning Committee hears a parish or town council representative, two speakers against and two speakers in support. Places are limited, so registering early matters.

What it means for you

  • If you live in Yewhurst Close or on Hammerwood Road, Monday lunchtime is the deadline, not the meeting itself. Miss it and you cannot speak.
  • If you use Ashurst Wood Recreation Ground, John Pears Field, the village centre or the allotments, this scheme is where £94,001 of improvement money for them would come from, if it is approved and the legal agreement is signed.
  • If you are on the list at Moatfield Surgery, £23,742 is earmarked for GP services there.
  • Comments already submitted still count. The seven objections are in the report and before members whether or not anyone speaks.

We track what is coming up on our Mid Sussex planning news page, and the district’s live road closures are on our roadworks and travel page.

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