Not conserving Winchelsea

Icklesham Parish Council's Planning Committee has always shown a contempt for Winchelsea's Conservation Area status. Cllr Bronsdon (Rye Harbour) famously dismissed it as 'simply' about visual appearance. Cllr Sutton (Winchelsea Beach) argued that, as far as he was concerned, Winchelsea Beach was a conservation area.

However, the current Planning Committee broke new ground recently by supporting an application (RR/2013/433/P) by JC Leisure, the motorhome sales unit near Strand Bridge, to breach the Development Boundary --- ie build in open countryside --- by extending across the Brede. If accepted, this would be a major shift in local planning policy.

The application itself may appear innocuous: a change of use to parking. But once a change of use to a business purpose has been allowed, it is simple to get further changes all the way to allowing building. This is was happened at Ferryfields Caravan Park and, more recently, at the old gasometer site. All of these developments have helped to erode the medieval landscape setting of Winchelsea --- a hilltop 'bastide' surrounded by flat marshland, with little peripheral development.

A secondary role in this little story has been played by East Sussex County Council. They owned the land. When they sold it, they were asked by Winchelsea councillors to place a covenant to stop development. They refused, apparently as it might reduce the value to them.