The Parish Council has received the following information from WDC advising that planning application WD/2021/1895/MAO will be considered at the next North Planning Committee on Thursday 21st July

Application No: WD/2021/1895/MAO OUTLINE APPLICATION FOR THE ERECTION OF UP TO 40 DWELLINGS LAND AT COOPERS ROW, FIVE ASH DOWN, TN22 3AN

I refer to the above planning application which is due to be considered by Members of the Planning Committee North on 21 July 2022. The meeting commences at 10.00am, and will be held at the Civic Community Hall, Wealden District Council Offices, Vicarage Lane, Hailsham, BN27 2AX.. Due to the Government restrictions imposed as a result of Covid-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, certain changes have been made to the arrangements for the Planning Committee meetings.

It is possible to still register to speak on planning applications that come to Committee, however our speaking rules have been amended during this pandemic as follows:

1. Registration for members of the public to register to speak on an application will open from the time the agenda for that meeting is published on the Council’s website;

2. To speak on an application you must email committee.services@wealden.gov.uk. Please provide your name, address and a contact telephone number and advise the application number and proposed development to which it refers. You must advise if you are speaking in favour or against the application and your relationship to the application site. Please also state whether you wish to attend the meeting and address the committee, or whether you wish to submit a statement or media file only. This must be done by no later than 12noon on the Tuesday before the meeting on a Thursday. For those speakers who want to address the Committee in person:

3. Speakers are allocated on a first come first served basis. For a major application up to 6 speakers (3 in favour and 3 against) can speak on an application. The speaker will be allowed 3 minutes to speak in favour or against the application. For all ‘other’ applications up to 4 speakers (2 in favour and 2 against) can speak on an application, with speakers being allowed 2 minutes to speak in favour or against the application.

4. There will be a Reserve List if public speaking for a particular application is oversubscribed. Should a registered speaker fail to lodge their request to address the committee or their media/audio file by the cut-off date (or their submission breaches the decency criteria/timing rules listed above), we will then contact those on the reserve list to invite their submission. If contacted, reserve speakers will be given 24 hours to make their submission or advise that they wish to attend the committee. For those speakers who do not want to address the Committee:

5. You are still able to email your speech or media file and details of this will be included in your confirmation email. The deadline for receiving either your request to address the meeting or speech or media file is 12 noon, 2 working days before the meeting (this is generally the Tuesday before the meeting on a Thursday). Your statement or media file will not be read out or played during the meeting and Councillors will be asked to consider these statements before the meeting Once the media files from Public Speakers have been published, you will need to access them via Google Chrome. Please note that some media files may take a few minutes to download due to the size of the file.

6. Any submissions considered to contain aggressive or abusive language, or that make personal remarks regarding any Member or Officer will be rejected. Equally, if you do not adhere to the protocol for addressing the Planning Committee you may be removed from the meeting.

Whilst there is the right to speak on a planning application being reported to the Committee meeting, there is no obligation to do so. Comments previously sent in writing will still be taken into account, whether you choose to speak at the meeting or not. If you consider making further comments, please note that these must be submitted no later than 10am the day before the meeting. The comments must be made via the application case file online or to planning@wealden.gov.uk. Please do not send further comments to Committee Services who should only be contacted directly about the public speaking arrangements listed above. There may be occasions when an application is withdrawn by the applicant/agent and, therefore not discussed at committee. In such cases it will not always be possible to advise you prior to the meeting.

For your information, the Officer’s recommendation to Members of the Committee regarding this application, is for Approval. The officer’s committee report relating to this application can be viewed online by visiting www.planning.wealden.gov.uk