Plans for a major housing development near Uckfield have been approved.

On Thursday (March 26), Wealden District Council’s Majors Planning Committee considered plans to build 100 homes on land to the east of Seghers Place — a site adjacent to the Ridgewood Place development at the southern edge of Uckfield.

The committee had heard how a conflict had arisen between Uckfield Town Council and the applicant, the housing developer Taylor Wimpey.

One element of concern, town council clerk Holly Goring told the committee, related to the authority’s plans to upgrade an existing sports pitch on an adjacent piece of land.

Ms Goring said the town council feared the layout of the proposed housing development may render its plans to upgrade the pitch unworkable, as flood lighting and noise could potentially be judged to have an unacceptable impact on some of the new houses.

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To address this, she said, the council had asked the developer to amend its proposals by removing a children’s play area from the scheme and providing a financial contribution for an off-site stake park instead.

Ms Goring said: “This would provide greater flexibility to the site layout to enable properties to be set further back from the northern boundary.

“However, the plans … show this has not been taken forward. As a result the position of five plots … remain of significant concern to the town council for noise and light pollution.

“In fact the applicant dismissed our concerns relating to the 3G pitch as their application would be submitted prior to ours.”

The town council also raised concerns about the housing development’s proximity to a skatepark and its potential impact on ancient woodland known as Boothland Woods.

Similar concerns had been raised by Uckfield councillors Ben Reed and Donna French (both independents, who sit on both the town and district council). They called on the committee to refuse the application or defer it until the disputes could be resolved.

The applicant disputed the concerns and argued the new homes would not present a barrier to the sports pitch plans and said mitigations (including an acoustic barrier and woodland buffer) would prevent issues. This view was shared by council planning officers.

While several committee members argued in favour of a deferral to allow for further negotiations between the town council and developer, officers advised against this approach.

Stacey Robins, the council’s head of planning, said: “What the town council said at the top of the debate is that they had concerns about houses on the northern interface with the Victoria Pleasure Grounds; they had concerns about the compatibility of those homes with their future plans for upgrading that facility.

“Then, very quickly, we told you in detail that there isn’t an incompatibility. There isn’t. Pollution control, on your behalf, are experts on noise and impact on residential amenity and there are no concerns.

“The concerns are on the other boundary to do with the skatepark. You can defer it, I would urge you not to, but is it going to achieve what you want in terms of further discussions [on] an omission of dwellings? No it won’t, because the scheme is acceptable.”

Mr Robins also stressed how, in its current form, the scheme provided a larger than minimum buffer space for the ancient woodland. He said an amended layout scheme could remove this benefit.

He also warned how a deferral could lead to an appeal, which could result in other adverse changes from the council’s perspective.

He said: “You can defer it, but you’ve to be alive to potential unauthorised consequences and losing this package of good is a very real prospect, I’m afraid.”

The committee opted to approve the scheme in line with the officers’ recommendation.

For further information application reference WD/2025/1902/MAJ on the Wealden District Council website. …………………..

The committee had been expected to consider two further applications for housing in the nearby area at the same meeting.

These were: an outline planning application from Catesby Strategic Land Limited seeking permission to build up to 75 homes to the north of Buxted Road in Coopers Green; and proposals from Kitewood Estates Limited, which sought permission to demolish the former Saxon Court care home in Buxted and build 30 homes in its place.

But the committee opted to end the meeting before these items could be considered.

This was due to the council’s constitution requiring a vote to extend a planning committee meeting beyond three hours. While an extension was put to the vote, this measure was not supported by the majority of members.

Speaking after the vote, the committee’s chairman Gareth Owen-Williams (Lib Dem), who had proposed the extension, said: “I apologise to those who have come here specifically to hear items, which will not now be discussed today, but I respect the views of my colleagues.”

As a result, the committee is expected to consider the outstanding items at a future meeting.

For more information on the Coopers Green scheme see application reference WD/2024/2481/MAO instead.

See application reference WD/2025/1996/MAJ for more information about the Saxon Court proposals.