WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?
Letter
Development Consultation Needed
Dear HIP
Local residents read, with a mixture of concern and disappointment, the latest titbits of information to leak out about the future of the Horntye Sports Centre and Park (HIP, Issue 268)
There was plenty of positive spin about the potential for new facilities and the hopes of the Horntye Park Management Company to lodge yet another speculative planning application with Hastings Borough Council, but very little else.
Frustratingly, these titbits are all that the local community ever hear from the Management Co or HBC Planning Dept until someone happens to spot a small yellow sign taped to a local lamppost – the only indication that a large and complex planning application has been submitted on a significant area of greenfield land right in the heart of our town, and slap bang next to a designated nature reserve, wildlife site and ancient woodland.
Other developments of significance – Queensbury House, St Leonards bathing pool, Sandrock Bends – have a period of community consultation in the pre-application process, to ensure it benefits the users of the site, and those who will be impacted by the development, now and in the future.
But not at Horntye. If another planning application is forthcoming, it will be the FIFTH in recent years, all of which land on the local community without prior warning. This lack of consultation with local people, volunteer groups and agencies leads to distrust, frustration and anger. It also seems to indicate a wilful disregard by the Management Co to the wider impact its actions have on the people of Hastings and St Leonards.
You can’t pave over just under five hectares of woodland and fields and build 104 (or 96, 65, 50 or however many it is this time) houses and not have a huge impact on the local community. It’s worth remembering that the land, along with a large public grant from HBC, was gifted to the charity to ”improve the conditions and life of the people of Hastings and St Leonards”. Is it any wonder that the last two applications on the site have failed, with hundreds of objections lodged, including from Sport England, local campaign groups and HBC conservation officers.
The current push from the Labour government may be to ”build baby, build”, but even they emphasise the need for a brownfield first strategy that includes local community engagement and revitalises town centres. Hastings is stuffed full of empty buildings and large derelict sites just begging for redevelopment.
I think we would all gladly support ‘another sporting dawn at Horntye’ but the solutions must come from local community engagement and benefit everyone who lives in Hastings and St Leonards.
The Save Horntye Community Campaign
HIP Sport Editor writes: According to the management company promoting the latest development, it would not involve paving over any significant area of woodland or fields. And the number of potential dwellings would be reduced from more than 100 to between 50 and 65.
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The sports editors comment on this letter rather proves the point about the lack of community consultation.
Where is the Management Co promoting the latest development, because it isn’t in the public domain? How does the sports editor know how many houses are in the latest proposal? Does he have a back channel with the developers that no one else is privy to?
As usual, there is a total disregard shown to the local community, zero consultation and a high handed attitude taken to every attempt made to engage.
As a member of Standing Up For Nature Hastings & Rother, I’m concerned that the management company’s assessment of the situation at Horntye should not be taken for granted. At this point in time, when we have an ecological crisis that threatens our entire existence, it is vital to protect and restore nature, so every area of woodlands and fields is significant! Fifty to 65 houses would occupy a considerable area of land on a green space in the heart of Hastings.