Flats plan would bring 'chaos' claim residents

UNHAPPY residents say a proposed three-storey apartment block in Crowborough will cause parking problems, traffic chaos and a threat to businesses.

The application for four one-bed and four two-bed apartments together with car park in Whitehill Road, was originally refused by Wealden District Council in June.

But EOS Developments Ltd, which wants to build the development, appealed against that decision.

Tony Slack, chairman of the Local Business Network, said no consideration had been given to the detrimental impact on small businesses.

He said: "The current and much needed on-street parking spaces outside the existing nearby businesses are barely adequate now and are often totally inadequate throughout the day.

"These businesses, but particularly the retailers, rely heavily on passing trade.

"Should this application be approved in its present form, there is the very real danger that not all the existing businesses in Whitehill Road will thrive and survive."

As a result of the appeal a planning inspector held an informal hearing to hear both sides' argument in Crowborough last Thursday.

Setting out both cases, planning inspector Richard Maile said the district council was concerned as Whitehill Road was already recognised as having parking and traffic problems.

Other objections included:

No public footpaths were earmarked for across the site frontage or neighbouring properties;

One parking space per unit was not adequate, especially for the two-bedroom flats;

The overspill from the car park could not be accommodated on the street.

EOS Developments Ltd insisted it had supplied detailed information over visibility from the site's access, along with traffic surveys, traffic flows surveys and parking surveys undertaken on Whitehill Road and Gladstone Road

It also stressed that it had been following one of the council's key objectives to provide 11,000 homes in Wealden by 2026.

Resident Hazel Blundell lives next door to the proposed three-storey development.

She said: "As far as visibility is concerned I have to go half way across the road to be able to see if anything is coming."

Meanwhile Neil Francis, of Fermor Row, Whitehill Road said: "The amount of heavy lorry flow is increasing both ways to the Jarvis Brook Industrial Estate because of the low railway bridge."

Also concerned was Peter Boorman, of Gladstone Road, who said: "I regularly see 60 to 70 per cent of cars parking on the double-yellow lines. If cars are coming up the other way it very often gets gridlocked."

A decision on the appeal will be made in the next few weeks.