Secondly, I attended the Owlsbury exhibition in Uckfield and visited the site to gather evidence. I remain opposed to the proposal which would destroy precious countryside and see it replaced with an expansive urban environment in an inappropriate location. The proposal would decimate multiple areas of ancient woodland, reducing them to small, degraded islands of impoverished habitat. Currently there are a number of threatened species on site including nesting owls, kestrels and kingfishers.

If you would like to oppose the proposal, please do respond to the official consultation, but do also share your thoughts via the campaign site: https://sabreowl.com/owlsbury

As the Planning Portfolio Holder made clear in a recent public meeting, accusations that Wealden District Council is promoting the site are entirely unfounded.

Thirdly, by challenging the appropriateness of individual green field applications, it is possible to question the evidential basis for some of the land that has been deemed suitable for development in the Strategic housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment SHELAA process.

The planning system assumes that economic growth means destroying nature, bu to t we know the opposite to be true. A recent Oxford study showed that nature degradation could cause the UK economy to shrink by an average of 12%. In a rural area like Wealden, this figure is likely to be far greater. We have more ancient woodland than any other district in the country and our natural environment represent a greater proportion of our assets. These contribute significantly to our economy - think of tourism associated with the Ashdown Forest and South Downs National Park, B&Bs, country pubs, wine trails, and Winnie-the-Pooh - all benefitting from thriving natural environment. By protecting nature, we are also prtecting ocal businesses and Wealden’s economy.

~ Local Plan
Our Local Plan process has been delayed by Labour government’s changes to planning regulations including a revised NPPF, increased housing target numbers and new policies around plan making. As a result, we need to have an additional Regulation 18 consultation. This will be shorter and less complex than the one held last year and will take place around September 2025. We will move to Regulation 19 by around April 2026 and aim to have the Plan adopted by April 2027. It is highly likely that the housing number proposed in the Plan will br significantly lower than the target set by central government, so we need to gather sufficient evidence to prove to the Planning Inspector, who assesses then Plan, that our number is right one.

As ever, if you have any comments, questions or concerns, please do reach out to me
and I will do my best to help.

Cllr. Christina Coleman
cllr.christina.coleman@wealden.gov.uk
07718 208340

~ Greenfield Protection
I have spent considerable time in recent months defending green field sites from inappropriate developments. Firstly, on Planning Committee North, where I advocated to refuse a substantial housing development that would have a detrimental impact on irreplaceable habitat such as aquatic ecosystems, veteran trees and ancient woodland. There is considerable pressure from officers to approve such applications, as refusing them could expose Wealden District Council to considerable costs at appeal. Nevertheless, I believe that the fight is worth it to establish a principle about what is acceptable land to build on.