Residents fear East Sussex village will be 'overwhelmed' if plan to build 228 holiday lodges goes ahead

Greystoke Land is working with the Normanhurst estate in Catsfield, near Battle to provide 228 lodges on the land.

It has launched a public consultation on the estate’s website and a public exhibition was held on Monday (October 31) for village residents outlining the plans.

But residents said they fear the natural environment will be damaged. They added the proposals would cause ‘horrendous traffic problems’ and that Catsfield’s population would be ‘overwhelmed’ by people visiting to stay at the proposed lodges.

They also said most of the lodges would be built in ancient woodland.

Jill Woods said: “There are many reasons to object to the development and partial destruction of this beautiful estate that has been such an important part of our village life for generations.

“It will not generate more income to the area as the complex is designed to be self-contained. It won’t bring employment for large numbers of villagers, and it will bring even more traffic to the area as employees drive here from Bexhill, Hastings and the nearby towns to staff the complex.”

On its website, as part of its development consultation, the Normanhurst estate, said: “The scheme provides an opportunity to create extensive new woodlands in locations where they will better connect existing blocks. This will promote expansion and interchange of species, especially woodland specialists that find it hard to spread and disperse such as ancient woodland flowers.

“The varied and diverse woodland is a significant feature of the site and one to be treated as an asset. There will also inevitably be some tree loss incurred due to the nature of construction and development.

“The development would represent a substantial capital investment that would support a significant amount of construction activity and so employment over the build-out period.

“The development would add visitor accommodation of the highest quality to the Rother district area. This will attract new visitors and spend to the area on a frequent and consistent basis. At present Rother is able to attract relatively few visitors who stay overnight. Once fully operational, visitors staying in the development could generate around £13 million of local spend.”

Details of the scheme can be found at www.normanhurstestate.com/development-proposals.

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