A campaign group has demanded a ‘re-consultation’ on controversial plans for new rugby club and 184 homes on the edge of Tunbridge Wells and East Sussex.
The campaign group are fighting a number of plans for 362 homes, a new Tunbridge Wells Rugby Football Club, cricket and padel hub, along with a GP surgery or children’s centre.
The Green Weald Alliance (GWA) said more time was needed to scrutinise one of Esquire Development’s proposals because, on 3rd March, the developer uploaded a large number of documents to its planning application lodged with Wealden District Council (WDC) late last year.
It sparked GWA to call for commenting on the plans to be reopened and extended for a minimum of 30 days, to enable individuals and organisations to scrutinise anything new on the application, and submit further comments. Esquire Developments is behind two highly controversial applications, for land between Tunbridge Wells and Frant, which together form a masterplan.
One is for a new home for Tunbridge Wells Rugby Football Club (TWRFC), along with cricket and padel facilities, at Chase Farm with access off Bunny Lane. 184 homes would then be built on the rugby club’s current ground on Frant Road. The other is for 178 homes, and either a children’s centre or GP surgery, proposed for Pinewood Farm, beside Frant Road.
There has been a large number of objections to the original application, with concerns about building in an area of outstanding natural beauty; floodlighting causing light pollution; damaging flora and fauna; the impact on water supply; flood rise; and an increase in traffic.
WBC objected to the outline application in January, as an adjoining authority, so it did not have the final decision. Frant Parish Council in East Sussex, warned Tunbridge Wells residents of “large swathes of new housing, from Bunny Lane to Forest Road, from High Rocks to Hawkenbury Road”. It said there were allocations for around 1,000 homes to be built “onto the edge of Tunbridge Wells”.
