30th November 2022

Chance to back new plan without Cuck-stye

A not very festive deadline is looming for local residents to support the council’s latest housing plan – this one does not include the unsustainable Cuck-stye development.

Planners from Mid Sussex District Councils are running a public consultation on their new Draft District Plan which ends on December 20th .

Villagers are asked to email the council – at www.midsussex.gov.uk/districtplan – to explain why they believe permanently removing the controversial plan by developer Fairfax to build 1,600 houses merging Cuckfield and Ansty is the best way forward.

Already there are 3,500 houses now under construction in the huge Northern Arc development less than a mile from Ansty and in the same rural parish, plus several hundred others in smaller new estates.

“We know the developer Fairfax will put up a very determined fight to get this controversial plan back on track in the New Year and will be energetically taking part in the consultation.

“We are asking all our supporters to send in an email and have put lots of guidance on our new website to make it as simple as possible, explaining that people need to come up with planning considerations, like traffic or environmental concerns. Personal opinions will not carry any weight” said Simon Stokes, Co-Chair of the Stop Cuck-stye Action Group.

Leader of Mid Sussex District Council Jonathan Ash-Edwards also urged everyone to have their say. “The decision to exclude the Ansty Farms site from the latest draft of the plan will be heavily challenged by the site promoter at all stages of the plan making process,” said Jonathan, in a letter to parish councils.

“They will of course present their own transport modelling and other studies seeking to justify inclusion of the site, he added.

Four expert studies have already been commissioned by Stop Cuck-stye Action Group, covering Landscape assessment, ecology, traffic and planning issues. Whilst a robust legal strategy is being devised.

“It’s going to be a long road but whilst Fairfax will do their utmost to win, we already have lots of evidence for a planning Inquiry in about a year’s time. I am confident that the will of local residents will in the end prevail,” added Simon.

You can help challenge this by submitting your own evidence by sending an email or writing, before the deadline of 19 December, to SUPPORT the current version of the draft which EXCLUDES the Ansty Farm site.