Under the applicants' proposals, this building will be demolished.

Convent site plans come under fire

Searching questions both about the proposals for developing the convent site in Magdalen Road and the council’s handling of the application were raised at a public meeting on Sunday 5 February, Nick Terdre reports.

Twenty two months after planning permission was originally sought, amended proposals were submitted last year. “They have tinkered around at the edges, but essentially the application is unchanged,” architect Stephen Gray told the meeting at White Rock Hotel. “My opinion is that only radical changes and the submission of a new application could make this suitable for recommendation to the planning committee.”

Further amendments are in the pipeline, which, in Mr Gray’s assessment, makes it unlikely that the application will be decided before April.

The application, which has been filed by Enplan on behalf of the Goicolea family of Spain which owns the site, proposes building a total of 197 new housing units – 32 in listed buildings including the former convent and a further 165 on the grounds in the north of the site.

An enabling development or what?

The application was made in the form of an enabling development – this is a procedure whereby monies are raised for the maintenance of listed buildings by permitting a venture such as house-building on the same site.

But as another speaker pointed out, an enabling development is meant to be resorted to only when other measures such as seeking grant funding and alternative uses for the site have been explored – and this has not happened.

At the same time the applicants have resorted to some mysterious manoeuvres with respect to the status of their proposal, informing English Heritage, which provides guidelines on how an enabling development should be presented and assessed, that their proposal was not of this type.

Meanwhile Mr Gray expressed concern that planning officers acting under delegated powers have been negotiating with the applicants in a way that may contravene council policy. He has requested the opportunity to raise the matter at the next meeting of the full council.

Critical comments were directed both by speakers and from the floor at the way the planning department has handled this application, and its apparent willingness to bend over backwards to accommodate the applicants, despite the many shortcomings of their proposals. About 20 members of the public attended the meeting.

A further meeting is likely to be called when the latest set of amendments is made public.

What to do?

If you want to keep in touch on this issue, call Maureen Jarvis on 01424 445 714.

The status of the convent site is one of the areas up for debate in the Shaping Hastings consultation. It is currently designated as available for housing but you can recommend to the council that this designation should be changed.

Councillors as a whole seem to be cloth-eared when it comes to taking on board people’s concerns about how the planning department deals with applications such as this one and the one concerning the Archery grounds. Let them know what you think and ask them what they intend to do about it.

And put future councillors on the spot – with local elections coming up, candidates should be made aware of the force of public opinion on these matters and made to take a position.

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