Fresh plan for Old Town site

A new plan has been unveiled for an Old Town location which has been dogged by controversy.
SUS-170911-103910001SUS-170911-103910001
SUS-170911-103910001

Bids to demolish Ridgelands in Upland Road, at the junction with the A259 East Dean Road, and build flats in its place have been refused on a number of occasions in previous years by both Eastbourne council planners and a government inspector.

But now a planning application has been submitted to build a five bedroom house on land within the garden.

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A design and access statement by ECE Architecture, submitted with the planning application, states the construction of the detatched dwelling would be on a site that currently forms a large garden to the side of Ridgelands.

“The application presents a sensitively designed contemporary solution that will create an additional dwelling which is both attractive and appropriately scaled,” says the statement.

“The application provides an individual dwelling with independent car parking which will contribute to the lack of housing supply within the district with a negligible effect on the surrounding residential area.

“The design process has been rigorous and carefully considered to create an appropriate design solution that respects existing character and creates a high quality sensitive detached dwelling that is visually unobtrusive from both Upland Road and East Dean Road.”

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But neighbours living in the area are objecting to the latest plans for the site – the third in the last seven years.

In February 2013, planning permission for a detached property on the site was approved. Three years later a plan to build a two and a half storey block with 10 two bedroom flats – and 12 parking spaces with a new access from Upland Road – was turned down by planners and later by a government inspector. In August 2017, plans for eight two bedroom flats and two one bedroom flats on the site were thrown out again by the council and an inspector on appeal.

Robert Enefer is one of the campaigners who lives in Upland Road and is against the latest plan.

He said, “This latest application which divides the plot of 2 Upland Road into two would seem to be a much more amenable proposal than the building of one or two blocks of flats. But the design is completely out of keeping and character with the properties in the neighbourhood and would become the focal point as you leave Eastbourne.”