End in sight for Gatwick development scheme

The saga of proposals for a major development on land at North East Sector, Crawley, part of which would suffer from noise if a second runway is built at nearby Gatwick Airport is set to continue until next year after a decision by Communities Secretary John Denham.

The minister, following the recommendations of the planning inspector who heard the recovered appeal, has signalled he is minded to approve a mixed-use scheme from Taylor Wimpey UK and Beazer Homes. 

They had proposed up to 1,800 dwellings, some 40 per cent of which would be affordable, 5,000 square metres of office and industrial floor space, 2,500 sq ft of retail activity, open space, a new primary school, a community hall and the relocation of an overhead power line.

However, the minister has said he won’t be able to finally decide the fate of the scheme by the original deadline of 27 November but has committed to make a final decision on or before 11 March. Although the Secretary of State is minded to agree with the Inspector's recommendation, it's subject to his concerns about some of the proposed conditions being satisfactorily addressed.

Proposals for the site which originally surfaced in 1998 were originally rejected by the then Secretary of State in May 2007. That decision was subsequently quashed after a High Court case and a second appeal inquiry held earlier this year. The planning backdrop was further complicated a year before, following a legal challenge to the adopted Crawley Core Strategy.

In the latest decision letter the current SoS argued that the scheme was justified in the absence of a five-year supply of housing land in the Crawley and Gatwick sub-region and the “poor prospect” of remedying that in the medium term.

He also concluded that if a second runway was built and operated in a “mixed mode” undesirable “but not unacceptable” levels of noise would be endured by 60 per cent of residents for some 27 per cent of the time.

View the Secretary of State’s decision letter and the Inspector’s report

 

Roger Milne

4 December 2009