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The area in front of Warrior Square Station, where the council wants to replace the Alpha Cafe, to the right, with a multi-storey building.

Local plan: activist calls on you to comment

If you want to have a positive effect on Hastings Borough Council’s planning policies, you should take the opportunity to comment on the Hastings Local Plan which will lay down planning policy guidelines up to 2028. So says artist and local activist Maureen Jarvis, who stresses that the deadline for submitting comments is this Friday, 27 March, at 4.30pm. Nick Terdre reports.

There are two issues in particular where proposals from the public can help shape future guidelines, according to Maureen – the Former Convent of the Holy Child Jesus in Magdalen Road in St Leonards and the design and impact of developments, especially as they affect Conservation Areas.

“As a result of all our efforts in participating in the consultation and hearings on the Hastings Local Plan, the Council has already agreed to some significant changes with regard to the Convent in the Development Management Plan, the blueprint for development in the borough up to 2028,” says Maureen.

She suggests a number of proposals to be put to the independent inspector who is examining the content of the Local Plan before it goes to the government for final approval, and who has suggested how some guidelines should be worded in the form of a couple of main modifications.

In the case of the convent, the inspector says: “I suggest that it starts as follows: Planning permission will not be granted for development within the curtilage of the Former Convent of the Holy Child Jesus unless it would secure the long term suitable use and future of the existing Listed buildings… and Planning permission for enabling development will not be granted unless such development would…

Here Maureen proposes amending the wording to read: “Planning permission will not be granted for development within the curtilage of the Former Convent of the Holy Child Jesus unless (i) it is for enabling development that is in accordance with national guidance, and (ii) the Italianate East Wing is retained.

An enabling development is a procedure whereby monies are raised for the maintenance of listed buildings by permitting a venture such as house-building on the site. To justify an application to build 135 newbuild units on the convent site, planning officials have appeared to be playing fast and loose with the concept, hence the need to ensure the enforcement of national guidance.

Another area of concern is the council’s desire to allocate the site of the Alpha Cafe in front of Warrior Square Station for the construction of what it calls a “landmark” multi-storey building. Sharpened guidelines on the design and impact of developments, not least in Conservation Areas such as the square fronting the station, could help to head off such a plan.

In this respect the inspector says, “The Plan should make it abundantly clear that matters of design are of greater importance than figures of indicative capacity of the various sites” (a reference to the number of dwellings which could be built). He proposes a draft guideline which states that, “…design, height, mass and appearance of the proposed building(s), layout…trees and relationship with the surroundings…” should carry greater weight than indicative capacity.

To strengthen this guideline, Maureen proposes adding the following: “Where the indicative capacity of a site implies a scale and massing that is incompatible with preserving or enhancing the character or appearance of a Conservation Area or its setting, development should be limited to an amount that causes no significant harm to the Area.”

Comments can be sent by email to fplanning@hastings.gov.uk or on paper to Planning Policy Team, Hastings Borough Council, Aquila House, Breeds Place, Hastings TN34 3UY (though at this late stage emails are no doubt safer than postal submissions). In either case the submission should be entitled ‘Representations to the Inspector’s Preliminary Findings.’ Comments relating to the convent should be marked Main Modification 2 (or MM2) and those concerning the design and impact of development Main Modification 3 (or MM3).

[This article has been amended to correct the number of homes proposed to be built on the convent site from “almost 200” to “135”: see New convent proposals still draw criticism.]

 

Maureen Jarvis is one of the artists exhibiting in the current show – : “By Means of…” When Media and Material Are Key – at Hastings Arts Forum, 36 Marina, St Leonards-on-Sea TN38 0BU. Tel 01424 201636. The show runs until 5 April.

 

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Posted 10:36 Thursday, Mar 26, 2015 In: Home Ground

3 Comments

  1. Helen Howes

    I have just moved to Magdalen Road opposite the Convent site and want to get involved with any groups that want to save the building. I can’t seem to find much on the internet about who owns it and what is happening, but I think the building – at least from the outside – is amazing and if I can help in any way, I am ready to go!

    Comment by Helen Howes — Monday, May 16, 2016 @ 20:48

  2. DAR

    Rocketing demand for housing in England (and particularly SE England) – mainly caused by annual net migration rates of a quarter of a million plus over several years – has meant that local planners are being coerced by central government into achieving house-building targets which too often lead to inappropriate developments. I’d like to mention “MM4” – the proposed massive development on the Harrow Lane Playing Fields. This proposal would lose a large and vital green resource which, it is argued by HBC planners, is ripe for development because it hasn’t been used for “formal” activities (like minor league football) for oooo… 3 or 4 years! That’s it. Never mind the “informal” activities (like it’s the only safe place in the area for kids to play football etc.), or the fact that this might be re-used “formally” in the future, particularly when other sites in this area have also been earmarked for “loadsahouses” and, therefore, lots more people. And this would only lead to more traffic/air pollution in an area which will already see a huge increase in traffic when “the road to nowhere” (BHLR) is finally completed. I thought we were supposed to be preserving playing fields, not selling them off!

    Comment by DAR — Thursday, Mar 26, 2015 @ 13:52

  3. George Jelliss

    It is difficult to have an opinion about developments on the Convent site since it is rarely open to public access. I presume the main building is listed. I live opposite and can see broken windows where pigeons get in but what it’s like inside I’ve no idea.

    In my view any high rise developments near Warrior Square Station should be confined to the hills surrounding it. The area by the station itself needs some trees and landscaping, and the pubs opposite could do with renovation.

    Comment by George Jelliss — Thursday, Mar 26, 2015 @ 11:36

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