Annual Meeting, Thursday, 20 July.
19.00 at the Barn on the Green
If you want to know why the Lewes area is facing so may threats from developers, how these developments may affect Ditchling and its residents and what we can do about it, come and hear our two speakers at the Society’s Annual Meeting.
Dr John Kay is a Trustee of Sussex CPRE and is the planning lead for Sussex CPRE’s Lewes District group. He is also a long standing Ringmer parish councillor. Not afraid of being blunt about the challenges facing us, he describes his talk as being about “Concreting over the Sussex Weald”.
Marc Munier is founder and director of “Don’t Urbanise the Downs”. You only have to look at the number of posters around Ditchling to see how effective Marc’s campaign has been in bringing the threat of large-scale development to people’s notice. Marc will speak briefly to allow everyone the opportunity to ask any questions you have about the campaign.
Come and listen to two campaigners who know the ins and outs of how the system works and what the force of public opinion can achieve.
Members of the Society, of course, attend for free. Guests will be charged £5, which coincidentally is the cost of a year’s membership and makes joining the Society on the night quite a bargain!
Everyone will be able to attend the meeting and listen to John and Mark with a complimentary glass of wine in their hands.
The Society’s new website. Be quick and click!
Come and look at our new web site – ditchlingsociety.org.uk. You will find more than you might expect.
If you are interested in the history of the village and would like to find links to the 2007 character appraisal of the village and maps of all the listed buildings, then click on the tab Discover Ditchling.
If you would like a short piece on the lamp posts in the village, some going back to the 1860s, have a look at Lamp Posts.
On our home page, Conserving the future of our community, you will see scrolling along the top some of Gordon Bain’s splendid aerial views of the village (Thanks Gordon, they are great).
And of course, if you want to know more about what we do and the contact points for the local authorities that have responsibility for facilities in our village, have a look at About Us.
We would appreciate any comments you may have.
‘The Land West of the Drove’
In 2018 there was a planning application to build a house on this parcel of land that sits in the settlement gap between Ditchling and Keymer. Hundreds of objections were made to the planning authority by local residents and the application was withdrawn. Since 2019 there have been six further planning applications – all related to the use of the land for camping, the keeping of horses, or both – which have also produced strong local objections.
Some of these applications have subsequently been the subject of appeals to the Planning Inspectorate and one of these from 2021, SDNP/21/00894/FUL, has been allowed by the Inspector in a decision published on 5 June 2023. The decision states that “….planning permission is granted for equestrian use……subject to the conditions set out in the attached schedule”.
Note that this decision has no bearing on the use of the land as a camp site. The most recent application this year, SDNP/23/01792/FUL, to intensify the use of the land as a camp site was again refused by the local planning authority on 22 June.
The underlying principle, reflected in our neighbourhood plan, is that the settlement gap between Ditchling and Keymer should be protected. We are very appreciative of the support given by the Society’s members and we may need to call on your support again – the Ditchling Society will vigorously address any threats to the settlement gap in the future.
Boundary Commission says Ditchling should remain in Lewes constituency!
The Boundary Commission for England has concluded its final 2023 Review of Parliamentary constituencies in England and submitted its final report and recommendations to the government.
The Commission says it received more than 400 responses objecting to its proposed Lewes constituency, most of which came from the three wards, often referred to as the ‘northern villages’, originally intended to form part of the East Grinstead and Uckfield constituency. Its conclusion is that Ditchling and Westmeston, together with the Plumpton, Streat, East Chiltington and St John ward be retained in Lewes constituency, but our friends and neighbours in the Chailey, Barcombe and Hamsey ward stay in the proposed East Grinstead constituency.
The Commission gives a detailed analysis of its reasons for these choices here, in paragraphs 986 to 989, and it was clearly a close decision. Well done to all those who made their views known to the Commission – our voices do count.
Julia Goodbourn
Steve Dempsey
Co-chairs, the Ditchling Society