Homes England's 375 home development in Haywards Heath's Hurstwood Lane granted permission

The outline application from Homes England, for Hurst Farm, in Hurstwood Lane, was given the nod during a meeting of the planning committee on Thursday (August 10).

As part of the site crosses the district boundary, a duplicate application was considered and approved by Lewes District Council on Wednesday (August 9).

The Mid Sussex application received 140 objections, with safety at the Fox Hill / Hurstwood Lane junction being one of the concerns raised.

County councillor Stephen Hillier was largely in support of the application but he too had concerns about the junction, particularly for traffic attempting to turn right out of Hurstwood Lane.

Pointing to a number of accidents over recent years, Mr Hillier supported the idea of signalising the junction and putting in a pedestrian crossing.

He said: “The stretch of road around the junction of Hurstwood Lane and Fox Hill has been blighted by excessive speeding for many years, due not least to it sitting at the bottom of two slopes.”

No such concerns were raised by West Sussex Highways, which lodged no objections to the application.

Spokesman Ian Gledhill told the meeting that the junction ‘complies with all necessary design standards’.

Mr Gledhill pointed out that it wasn’t necessarily down to the developer to solve the area’s speeding issues.

But he added that Homes England had agreed to a condition to look at further measures on Fox Hill ‘to try to reinforce the existing speed limit along there’.

The committee was only being asked to consider giving outline consent for the principle of development on the site and its access.

All other matters will come back as a number of reserved matters applications.

Paul Kenny (Lab, Haywards Heath Franklands) told the meeting that residents in Old Farm Close were already having ‘significant problems’ joining the A272 bypass.

Describing the access arrangements as ‘lamentable’, he added: “We’ve heard of so many problems at both ends of the site and all along Hurstwood Lane.”

But Mr Kenny said he was delighted with the affordable housing provision in the application – 113 homes – adding that it was ‘something to be applauded’.

The outline plans for the 33-hectare site were approved by seven votes to one with one abstention.

The application includes a primary school, burial ground and allotments.

The site will be split into four parcels.

The first will be in the north-western corner where some 59 homes will be built, with access directly off the northern end of Hurstwood Lane.

The second will be separated from the first by the existing Hurstwood Grange access and sits immediately south of the adjoining business units.

The plan is to build 94 homes there, with access from the southern corner of the plot.

The third parcel to the south will hold around 146 homes between the open space and the rear boundaries of the Rocky Lane housing to the west.

And the fourth will be on the eastern side of Hurstwood Lane, where around 76 homes will be built.

The burial ground will be to the south of the fourth parcel of land, with the allotments and a new country park to the east.