Speckled Wood under threat again!

What’s happening with Speckled Wood and why it matters

Speckled Wood is a much loved local woodland. People walk there, children play there, wildlife depends on it, and it helps soak up rainwater and reduce flooding. In the council’s Draft Local Plan, land on Graystone Lane (in red on the plan below) has been identified for housing. The plan says this land is next to Speckled Wood. That is not correct. Council maps and Land Registry plans show the land sits within Speckled Wood itself. Building there would mean cutting into the woodland, not building beside it.



The site is Policy HS24 Land at Graystone Lane and details are on pages 159-162 of the Draft Hastings local plan desired options.

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Isn’t Speckled Wood already protected?

Yes. In the current adopted Local Plan, Speckled Wood is designated as Local Green Space under policies HN8 and HN10. This gives it strong protection. That protection was not added casually. It was confirmed in 2015 after an independent Planning Inspector examined the Local Plan. The Inspector accepted that Hastings needs more homes, but still concluded that Speckled Wood should not be built on. He said it is:
“demonstrably special to the local community”
and that:
“the wider public interest lies with the land remaining open”.

Because of this, housing sites within Speckled Wood were removed to make the plan sound. The government’s National Policy Planning Framework also makes it clear that designation of open spaces as Local Green Space should last beyond the lifetime of a single local plan.

So why is it back again?

The new Draft Local Plan brings development back into Speckled Wood because the landowner has asked for it to be included. However, the draft plan has included the site without explaining why the Inspector’s decision no longer applies. There is no new evidence showing that circumstances have changed. The woodland is still there. People still use it. Wildlife still depends on it.

What can residents do?

We held a public meeting on 28th February to discuss the local plan, and the proposal to build on part of Speckled Wood. Around 50 people turned up to hear Jane Ripley from Standing Up for Nature talk about joining together campaigns to protect green spaces in the local plan process across East Sussex, followed by a discussion about the nearby site in Speckled Wood. There was a lot of concern about the proposal, with unanimous support for removing the site from the draft local plan.

The draft local plan has now been published for consultation. You can find the part about proposed development sites here. The site earmarked for housing in Speckled Wood is HS24: Land at Graystone Lane. Please do submit an objection to the site.

You can also see a full paper version of the draft Local Plan at Hastings Library or Ore Community Library, where you can fill in a paper comment form.

The following is a list of potential objections – you can use any or all of them. They will form the basis of Ore Community Land Trust’s submission about the proposal.

1. The Local Plan approved in 2015 that redesignated almost all of Speckled Wood as local Green Space, had very strong local support and the planning inspector, at the public examination of the Plan, stated that Speckled Wood was “demonstrably special to the local community” and that “the wider public interest lies in the land remaining open”. He removed two more housing sites from the Plan. To take any part out of Speckled Wood for housing development would be a huge backward step.
2. Speckled Wood is a vital and very well used woodland area in a very built-up part of the Borough that has very little amenity green space.
3. Speckled Wood has a significant ecological value as a home to wildlife. In particular, there are reptiles on the site (slow worms in particular) and there is an active badger set. These are both protected species, and should remain undisturbed. If development were to be considered, the presence of these two species would seriously limit the viability of the site, as the badger sett would have to be accommodated within any development, limiting the area of developable land, and reptiles would need to be relocated.
4. Redesignating part of the Speckled Wood Green Space would set a dangerous precedent that may risk other parts of Speckled Wood and other designated green spaces in the Borough.
5. The draft Local Plan has wrongly identified this site as ‘… adjacent to a public green space in the Ore Valley known as Speckled Wood’. It is actually part of the Speckled Wood Local Green Space, designated in the Local Plan in 2015.  This site was removed from the sites for housing development in the Local Plan by the planning inspector in 2015.
6. The Speckled Wood Local Green Space was established for the first time in the last local plan, in 2015. Local green spaces can only be determined during the process of adopting a local plan, and according to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), should only be designated if they are intended to last longer than the period of a single plan.
7. If the landowner succeeds in getting this site redesignated for housing, he is very likely to apply to develop even more of the land around it.
8. This site would cut off a section of a popular circular walking route that is relatively level to disadvantage residents, especially those with mobility issues who want to avoid the sloping ground to the northwest.
9. Site access for vehicles is clearly impossible either via Graystone Lane, which would require a new road right across the part of Speckled Wood northwest of Old London Road or a route via the unadopted and unowned road that currently connects the site to Old London Road. This road is used for parking by local residents and by the garage business and would consequently be too narrow for safe access by emergency vehicles.
10. In both cases the access road would result in a very dangerous junction with a busy main road that the Highways Authority have previously objected to.
11. Only about two-thirds of the proposed site is owned by the landowner – the rest is unregistered. Some of it is used by other properties who would have rights of adverse possession over the land. This includes the proposed access to the site, which is unregistered land that has been used by the local garage business next to the site for over thirty years.
12. It is very unlikely that any development of the site could be viable. The site is steeply sloped, includes a seven-metre retaining wall, and the remains of several buildings that would be extremely difficult and expensive to remove. Sewerage connections would be difficult and costly too, most likely involving mechanical pumps.
13. The proposed housing development numbers (45 to 55) are entirely unrealistic on such a small site, particularly as the area of the site has been exaggerated by the inclusion of the access road, which is not owned by the landowner, along with unregistered land that is also not owned by the landowner.

Ore Community Land Trust aims to acquire all of the land owned by the would-be developer and landowner to ensure that Speckled Wood can be indefinitely protected as a community woodland.

Planning decisions are influenced by evidence and public response. Every voice matters.

Together, we can protect Speckled Wood.

 

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