Poor old Hawkhurst

 Times of TW 11 December 2015

Rural Pillage – The Modern Way

By Kent Barker

Poor Hawkhurst.  It’s a lovely old village on the Kent/Sussex border.  It has an elegant colonnade with charming shops including an excellent butchers. Being on the junction of roads from Rye and Hastings it was a centre for the smuggling trade in the 18^th century when the notorious Hawkhurst Gang held sway.

But now gangsters of a different kind are eyeing it up with a view to modern day pillage and rape.

The thing is that the village knows it needs to expand.  But government and borough council housing targets have been extremely onerous.  It had some 1,800 homes at the turn of the millennium. Then they were told they had to find space for another 240. On the face of it a 13% or 14% increase in houses doesn’t sound unreasonable.  But rural villages generally have very limited space available. Well that’s not quite true.  They actually have loads of space.  The only problem is that it tends to be prime agricultural land.  Green fields or woodland which, in Hawkhurst, are deep within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.  And the whole point about an AONB is that it’s designed to protect the landscape from development.

So actually Hawkhurst’s options in finding places for these new houses was extremely limited.  But there had been a little local industry in the past so there were some brownfield sites available which the Parish Council identified to the planners and the developers.

Did they leap on them with alacrity?  No they didn’t. In fact the next thing to happen was submission of a planning application for 192 houses on what became known as ‘site 64’.  This was, in fact, a large swathe countryside in a valley just to the north of the village.  Objectors pointed out that such a huge single development was completely unsustainable in terms of roads and sewage and schools and would massively alter the character of the village. Nothing daunted, the developer pursued the planning process all the way through until, four years later, it was finally turned down on appeal. 

So, champagne and celebrations all round?  Not for long. The next planning application surfaced almost immediately.  This was for a more modest 62 homes – a mixture of two, three, four and five bedrooms and a three-storey block of flats plus parking and garages - but was again on a greenfield site.  In fact it was on a local beauty spot known as Circus Fields.  So Hawkhurst Parish Council objected, the Borough Council turned it down and the property developers promptly went to appeal.  Eventually the planning inspector conceded that the proposals ‘would cause significant harm’ to the area but passed them anyway, citing government housing targets.

So what price Localism?   Indeed does anybody actually recall the 2011 Localism Act? The Government’s publicity leaflet said there would be:

* new rights and powers for communities and individuals

* reform to make the planning system more democratic and more effective

* reform to ensure that decisions about housing are taken locally

            Well, forgive the hollow laughter, but Hawkhurst’s experience suggests that, when it comes into conflict with national housing policy, local views are simply trammelled on.

            And the ridiculous thing is that, in the past eight years, the village has found sites for 174 of the 240 units allocated to it –and has identified brownfield sites for the remaining 66 units!

            So just what is going on?  Well I believe two titanic forces are moving together and villages like Hawkhurst are being squashed in the middle.  To begin with it’s clear that developers massively prefer large greenfield sites over smaller brownfield ones.  Access is much easier and there are huge economies of scale.  Buy one doorknob and it costs pounds.  Buy 600 and the price comes down to pence.

            Then there’s national government influence.  I wonder who the MP for Hawkhurst is?  Oh yes, I remember now, it’s Greg Clark.  Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.  The very same Greg Clark who, last month, was schmoozing with property developers.  In fact he told them: ‘“We’re determined to pull out all the stops to keep the country building, with a clear ambition to deliver one million new homes by 2020. So I was pleased to meet with the Kent Developers Group and hear how they are working to deliver the homes and business premises that communities across Kent want and need.”

            Well, Mr Clark, the people of Hawkhurst do NOT want an estate of 62 homes built on a local greenfield beauty spot. In fact they are circulating an online petition demanding that you ‘call in’ the appeal inspector’s decision and hold a public enquiry.  I signed the petition myself, but I have to say I have very little faith that it will make the slightest difference.

ends