Category Archives: Mayfield

The Mayfield New Town proposal and the LAMBS opposition to it.

Mayfield lawfare resumes

Posted on

Mayfield claimed housing shortfall
The Mid Sussex Times reports:

Mayfield has stated that Horsham District Council (HDC) ‘does not have a full and proper understanding of the full objectively assessed need of the Housing Market Area’. Concern was raised by Mayfield about HDC’s ‘compliance with the legal test for the Duty to Co-operate’. The report states: ‘There is no publicly available evidence base which shows how meaningful engagement has taken place with neighbouring authorities in a continuous fashion prior to submission of the report.’ In addition, Mayfield raises issues with HDC, claiming it has ‘failed to calculate housing requirements’, ‘failed to allocate sufficient housing land’, ‘failed to allocate sufficient employment land’ and ‘absence of an effective Environmental Capacity Assessment’.

Update: the West Sussex County Times also has a report [PDF].

Update 27th July: LAMBS now has a post up on their website. Their main illustration is a Mayfield sewage map [PDF].

LAMBS Public Meeting

Posted on

St Paul's Catholic College, Burgess Hill
Friday, 20th June at 7.30pm, at St Paul’s Catholic College, Jane Murray Way, Burgess Hill. Plenty of car parking in the College and across the road in The Triangle Sports Centre. Speakers Nick Herbert, Nicholas Soames and Anthony Watts Williams. Representatives from both Horsham and Mid Sussex Councils’ Planning Authorities will be available to answer questions. Poster and flyer available here (PDF).

Update: the West Sussex County Times is planning to take some photos to accompany their Mayfield stories. LAMBs would welcome your attendance at this event. Turn up at ‘Nightingales’ in Bob Lane, Twineham (just East of The Old Cheese Factory) at 3:45pm on Friday 13th June, map here. The backdrop for the photo is a beautiful vista from the Northern tip of Mayfields’ proposed ‘Option 1’ site, with the Downs in the background. The photos will take no longer than 15 minutes, starting at 4:00pm. Bring the family.

Another update (11th June): LAMBS is hoping to get some placards advertising the public meeting out onto the verges by this weekend but is running out of time. Are you able to make some signs? They need to say something along the lines of: No New Town Here, Public Meeting at St Paul’s, Burgess Hill, 20th June at 7.30pm. If you can help, please call 07789 841888.

Yet another update (20th June): the list of speakers.

LAMBS meeting speaker list

Ecobluff called

Posted on

Wineham Lane
Michael Brown of CPRE writes in the Mid Sussex Times:

Both Horsham and Mid Sussex District Councils are in advanced stages of developing long term plans for their Districts: neither of their plans calls for any new market town to meet their Districts’ housing needs. As to location, it is difficult to envisage somewhere less suited to a mega-development than the lovely open countryside around Wineham with no significant local unemployment, with no road, rail or other infrastructure, and on low lying fields prone to flooding from the Adur. Not to mention the barn owls, nightingales and other wonderful wildlife.

We challenge Mayfield to publish the ecological and flood reports that it claims to have commissioned so that we can all judge for ourselves.

Mayfield owl alert

Posted on

Mayfield owl alert
Update 4th May: the West Sussex County Times has elicited some (more) ecowibble from Mayfield Market Towns:

As part of any planning application we would be required to carry out a number of ecological assessments to ensure that development does not pose any threat or danger to protected wildlife. We have already employed ecologists to carry out preliminary studies, and the next stage will carry out in depth ecological studies which will of course include surveying birds and other wildlife in the area. This ensures that the development can be designed so that it protects areas with existing wildlife habitat.

The rest is here.

Call for volunteers

Posted on

The Mayfield Horror
Considering how sparsely populated the Wineham/Twineham area is, the LAMBS team has done a remarkable job in their research and PR battle against the Mayfield Horror. But they have now reached their limit and need extra help:

We are holding an open meeting for anyone who is interested in assisting us with our fund raising and/or becoming more involved in LAMBS. We are very keen to meet anyone who can offer any specific expertise which could help in the campaign. The kind of skills we need include: fund raising, legal, planning, financial, administrative, printing/publication, etc. If you have no specific expertise in these areas, but have some spare time then please still come along – we also need people who are prepared to write letters, deliver leaflets and man stalls at local events. Please join us from 7:00pm on Monday, 28th April at The Royal Oak, Wineham. We would be grateful if you could let us know by email if you are coming to allow us to cater for numbers. If you are interested in helping us but are unable to attend the meeting please email us with your telephone number and we will get back to you as soon as possible — lambsorg@gmail.com