The following information has been received from Fairfax:

Fairfax would like to update you and your Councillors on their proposed masterplan for a future sustainable development at Owlsbury, to the west of Uckfield, which will deliver up to 1700 new homes, including 35% affordable homes and a range of community facilities outlined below. 

We will be holding a public consultation on the proposed masterplan at the Uckfield Civic Centre on:

Friday 28th Feb from 3-8pm and Saturday 1st March from 10am-1pm.

This will be supported by an online public consultation with the same exhibition boards and survey for two weeks from 28th Feb to 14th March 2025 at https://owlsbury.com

The event and project website are being widely publicised, with an invitation mailed to over 2000 homes and businesses surrounding the site, including the western side of Uckfield as well as Little Horsted; advertising in the Sussex Express; and local social media forums. 

The Owlsbury scheme will make an important contribution to the provision of housing, including 35% affordable housing, in the district. The proposals include a sports hub to help meet the needs of the Uckfield area. The facility provides indoor tennis and padel courts together with 3G football pitch, cricket and rugby pitches with sports pavilion with parking.

The scheme seeks to deliver on the Council’s climate change objectives, with sustainable house construction carefully situated away from ancient woodland and key wildlife habitats, whilst opening to the public a large area of countryside (which is currently private land) in the form of a SANG park – Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace – on land to the west of the former railway embankment. This land will publicly accessible via the new development.

The proposals include new cycle and pedestrian routes and bus service and bus stops. Vehicular access is proposed via the A22 at the recently constructed Ridgewood roundabout and a further access between the Ridgewood and Copwood roundabouts.

The proposals protect the heritage of the site, including the listed Owlsbury farmhouse and associated buildings, and delivers a range of benefits which the new community will need, including workspaces, shops, primary school, later living accommodation and allotments.

Land ‘West of Uckfield – Owlsbury’ is identified as a potential strategic allocation in the Regulation 18 version of the Local Plan (February 2024). These current proposals focus on the land at Owlsbury Farm.

The District Council are preparing the next stage of the Local Plan (the Regulation 19 version) which is expected to be published next year. The new plan will be required to allocate land to meet the housing requirements introduced by the Government in December 2024 as part of its review of national planning policy.

This public consultation, therefore, runs alongside Council’s work on the new Local Plan.

An outline planning application will follow this consultation exercise, which will be supported by a full suite of documents including Environmental Statement and a Transport Assessment.

We are looking forward to hearing feedback from the local community, which we will share in due course.

We invite you to the consultation and would welcome your feedback. Do let us know if you have any questions.