WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?
Letter
Local Plan
Dear HIP,
Most residents of Hastings will not be aware or interested in the Regulation 19 stage of adoption of the proposed new local plan and yet most people will be aware of the need for more homes nationally. So how does Hastings play its part without becoming a concrete jungle?
The fundamental problem is that the system under which we now plan is no longer fit for purpose, indeed, if it ever was. In more advanced societies there are two types of planning: Use Class (UK), and Zoned (USA, Australia, Canada, etc). There are faults with both, and both are trying to reach out to the other by compromising and adjusting the main existing system, yet both are already proven not to produce the type of urban areas that work best. In a nutshell, ones with mixed uses and higher density.
Zoned systems are very prescriptive but have generally led to suburban sprawl, using land inefficiently and generic characterless appearance. Over many years now Hastings has permitted low density urban sprawl just like in zonal systems even though we have what is called a ‘discretionary planning system’. Why are these powers of discretion not used in a positive way? The reasons for this are complex but largely driven by the demands of the commercial housing providers combined with a lack of innovative thinking by planning officers and councillors. Bureaucracies are naturally cautious.
The availability of land would appear to be a major problem, except that Hastings actually has quite a lot of it and is not a high-density urban area as some would have us believe. No, it is how land is used that is critical, both in terms of numbers and quality, that are at the heart of successful urban places. We must not build in flood risk areas and yet the plan proposes that, and we must not build in areas of high environmental value and yet the plan does that too. Why is the plan so wilfully bad at planning (looking forward)?
A further apparent burden is the amount of history in the town. Onto this, how conservation is interpreted locally has been laden with pointless restrictions by a regime that does not seem to understand that history is made of successive futures. It is not fixed.
However, there is land, and there are sustainable solutions, and our planners have means of achieving better outcomes, but ultimately now it is up to the people of Hastings to bring these solutions to the planning inspectorate.
Ken Davis
Letter
Town Centre to Lose Yates Pub
Dear HIP,
Yates appeared to be thriving. Surprised it was closed. It always seemed to be full and busy. It does not make sense that the Stonegate group considered it “not viable” unless they were just asset stripping.
Michael Haywood
Letter
Express Rail Service Gets Peak Time Pricing
Dear HIP,
This is hardly worth getting too excited about. A fast journey should really get you to London Bridge in an hour max. So this offering is still way off the mark. Plus one train? For commuters only? The powers that be are trying to hype this up, but we all know this will never cut the mustard.
Nick Clark
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