Save our Harrow Lane Playing Fields!

Four housing developments at the top of Harrow Lane, which are in various stages of application or approval, will drastically change the character of the area if all go ahead. While acknowledging the need to boost the town’s housing stock, Conservative Cllr Mike Edwards, who represents Ashdown ward, finds the prospect daunting, as he explains.

The steady roar of the heavy earth-moving equipment cutting through the ancient green pasture gives the first clue to the unfolding disaster taking place in Ashdown Ward. The scrubbing out of the hedge, the felling of trees and the erection of fences carrying the forbidding “No entry” signs is another clue.

Hastings Council, in its quest to be seen to be building more houses, is embarking on a tragic journey of destruction in the northern tip of the borough. This site in particular, where Harrow Lane meets The Ridge, has not actually been granted planning approval but the developer, emboldened by a hand-wringing and supine planning authority is pressing ahead regardless with the construction of 67 dwellings. It’s the smallest of three conjoined development sites, the other two of which have approval for 208 and 140 dwellings respectively.

If all three proceed, and this is the likelihood, gone forever will be these last remaining greenfield sites in this part of the borough which have provided recreational space and exercise facilities for residents over many centuries.  No more will locals be able to take their dog out for exercise, no more will youngsters be able to safely kick a ball about, no more will adults be able to take, what we are told during this pandemic, is vital daily exercise in open fields.

Densely packed housing

In their place we shall have densely packed housing on pocket handkerchief sized plots with no garages and narrow roads jammed with parked cars. Recently, across the road an application for 148 dwellings has been submitted for the Ashdown House site, better known as the Child Support Agency building, plus a new retail unit. So in total we now have applications granted or pending numbering 563 dwellings, a figure far in excess of any other single proposed development within the borough.

Most of the homeowners living on these sites will spill out onto a short length of Harrow Lane, which everyone knows is a narrow congested bending road with poor sight lines. The planners have rejected mini roundabouts and other traffic control methods but have accepted the idea of a Travel Plan which essentially means persuading people to switch to buses.

The professional analysis shows that an additional 1,573 daily vehicle movements will be generated by the new developments. Local residents will no longer be permitted to park on Harrow Lane in order to comply with an ESCC Traffic Regulation Order for visibility splays.

We are assured by the various developers, and it’s accepted by the planners, that the local schools, the doctors’ and dentists’ surgeries, our beloved Conquest hospital, the bus services, etc, are all capable of absorbing the additional volume of population. I call that living in a dream world.

Now the solution to this is a straightforward and simple one. Of the four sites in play, one alone is owned by Hastings Borough Council. It is called Harrow Lane Playing Fields. As the name suggests it was for many years a mixed sporting facility situated at one of the highest points in the borough.

No takers

In August 2019 the council granted itself outline planning approval for 140 housing units of which 56 should be affordable. The cash-strapped council claims it can sell the site with planning approval for more than £5m, but although it’s been on the market for two years and allegedly much interest has been shown, it has failed to sell.

Most fair-minded residents in the borough recognise the need to build more housing and progress has been made in recent years. However I sense from speaking to residents that this huge and dense development is going too far. The ability to leave your house and find open space nearby is much cherished – it is ironic that people living in the town centre have the seafront, Alexandra Park, the Oval, the East and West hills and other smaller parks all within easy reach.

If all these proposed developments were to go ahead the people of north Ashdown would be denied access to this simple but essential amenity. I think that most people living in the surrounding area – and let’s be clear, this is already a heavily built-up area – would take the view that if the three privately owned sites were to proceed while the Playing Fields site was spared, this would be a fair trade-off between more housing and existing green space.

I’ve heard it said by a Labour Councillor that the intensive development is a payback for over-development in other parts of the town. In my view housing is too critical and permanent an issue to be used as a political football.

I therefore call upon HBC to take the Harrow Lane Playing Fields site off the market. In fact I would go further and actively seek a contribution from the developers of the other three sites to enhance and improve it. It should be possible to create some imaginative recreational designs for a multi-use games area suitable for all sections of the population, young and older. I shall be asking for a zimmer frame race track.

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