New Burgess Hill homes approved

Detailed plans for 307 homes on the northern edge of Burgess Hill have been approved.

Outline consent for 325 dwellings on the former sewage treatment works in Fairbridge Way was first granted by Mid Sussex District Council in 2014, but a revised permission was also approved last year.

The site is now being delivered as 100 per cent affordable housing, with dwellings constructed off site in the applicant’s factory and transferred to site in modular form for final installation.

A number of the development’s internal roads have already been constructed and work is ongoing to improve the two existing mini-roundabouts.

A reserved matters application for the scheme, outlining the detailed layout and design of the homes, was approved by the council’s district planning committee on Thursday, March 17, subject to further information required from the Environment Agency.

Anne Eves, Green district councillor for Burgess Hill – Leylands, described how she voted in favour ‘between gritted teeth’ due to the consideration of 307 affordable homes on a brownfield site ‘avoiding yet more destruction of the countryside’.

She appreciated it is a modular development, which is more sustainable than traditional modes of building, and acknowledged the constraints Ilke Homes is operating under.

But she ‘deplored’ the fact renewables will only be incorporated into phase three and suggested this was not just about reducing carbon emissions, but also the quickest route to reducing dependency on foreign gas. She also questioned where solar panels would go as very few roofs will face south or south-west.