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Before May 2007 (stories written by Cathy Watson and published before Cathy Watson Associates was launched)
January 19, 2007 (published in Sussex Express) Church bells to be restored | Eight church bells weighing a total of nearly three tons are to be transported from their Buxted tower on a journey which will see them restored with a ring that will last for the next 100 years.
The man overseeing the project on the bells of St Margaret’s, Mr Homer Cox, describes it as a once in a lifetime experience and says in the parish magazine that they are hoping to have TV, radio and press coverage on the day the bells are removed and that a large number of parishioners will turn out to see them emerge from the church.
The bells will be taken to Appleton near Oxford and once there a coach load of people will have the opportunity of travelling to the workshop to see progress being made. Later the bells will go to the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London to be tuned together, something which has never been done before.
The project is expected to cost about £30,000 and take eight weeks. Since 20 weddings have already been booked at St Margaret’s this year and the bells will be needed over the Christmas period the aims is for the bells to go between January and March 2008.
One of the reasons the parochial church council has approved the restoration project is that yesterday (Jan 18) was the 30th anniversary of the re-establishment of bell ringing at St Margaret’s Church.
Mr Cox writes in the parish magazine that they had been silent for the previous five years because of a shortage of ringers. Since ringing out again they have called people to Sunday worship on more than 1,500 occasions and been rung to celebrate more than 300 weddings.
The other reason for restoration is that only seven bells are being rung at the moment as the tenor bell has loose bearings and is too dangerous to ring. Six of the others also need attention, two urgently.
Mr Cox writes that the average age of the bells is 166 years and two of them are 320 years old. No major work has been done on them since 1926 when they were re-hung as a ring of eight.
In the last 80 years only one of the bells has been out of the tower. That was recast in 1988.
‘As this project is expected to give us a ring of bells to last for the next 100 years, it is without question a once-in-a-lifetime project and I am very honoured and privileged to have been appointed by the PCC as project co-ordinator,’ said Mr Cox. Working with him are the Rev John Challis, Mr Paul Dillon-Robinson, Mr Roger Cowsill and Mr Alfred Patten.
| March 30, 2007 (Sussex Express)
Radical ideas at Design Day
High density housing in the centre of Uckfield was favoured by architects taking part in a design day on Tuesday.
Radical demolition was proposed by one of the teams taking part in a competition which called for innovation without planning or budgetary constraints.
The orange team, which went on to win, wanted to demolish buildings between the Post Office and Civic Approach and reposition the town centre to the west of the High Street.
They envisaged moving Luxford Field further south, allowing space for a plaza, a theatre, shops, offices and high density housing.
Tesco would be demolished and relocated in the new centre and car parking would be provided under the new Luxford Field.
There would be more demolition of buildings around the river creating a formal water park with a feature night club in the centre to the west and a more natural water feature on the Hempstead Meadows nature reserve side.
The Uckfield to Lewes rail link would be reinstated and two bridges built, the existing bridge would be re-built to allow more water to flow under it and there would be another feature bridge.
There was pressure from most of the teams for high density housing. The blue team wanted to see homes built behind the High Street on both sides. They proposed flats for first time buyers and homes for first time families saying they would not be reliant on cars for their day to day activities and would bring new life to the town.
All the teams agreed that Uckfield suffered through being dominated by cars, lack of a focal point – the only one spotted was the Tesco clock tower - and clear directions to shopping. The Bell Lane/High Street junction was described as a disaster.
The winning orange team was made up of three architects Tom Drysdale from Uckfield, Christopher Harrison, Tunbridge Wells, and Neil Millbank, Burgess Hill, Wealden District Council planning officer Duncan Morrison, town councillor Jim Molesworth-Edwards and Daniel Scott who has been helping draw up plans for a town skateboard park.
The judges were architect Robert Adam, the chief executive of Wealden Council Charles Lant, Chamber of Commerce president Francis Wallace and chairman of Uckfield Town Council’s plans committee Cllr Margaret Kiloh.
The prize for each member of the winning team was a bottle of Lanson Black Label Champagne donated by the Tesco store in Uckfield.
An artist, Malcolm Buchanan-Dick, was funded by Arts Council England South East to take part in the day and produce an artwork as a memento which will be presented to the town council during Architecture Week in June.
Event organiser town councillor Ian Smith welcomed comments of Wealden’s head of planning and environmental policy David Phillips who pointed out that three of the principal landowners were the town council, district council and East Sussex County Council and suggested that they could work together with other landowners to form a development partnership and agree a way of taking Uckfield forward.
| March 30, 2007 (Sussex Express)
What's that in my apricots!
Mother-of-two Anita Broad sent her 12-year-old daughter off to school with some tasty-looking apricots in her lunchbox only to discover a ‘long and unpleasant looking black worm’ moving about in the packet at home.
Since the pack was from Turkey Mrs Broad of Bakery Cottage, Blackboys, was worried about what the worm could be and phoned Uckfield Community Technology College to stop Maddie eating the apricots for her lunch.
Then she set about trying to identify the worm and contacted Drusillas zoo park whose staff were pleased to help because of concern that creatures coming from another country could be carrying germs or herald the introduction of an invasive species.
But this one turned out to be a harmless European millipede. Mrs Broad was told that it wouldn’t survive on its own in our climate and so it was put in with the park’s own millipedes.
‘All’s well that ends well,’ said Mrs Broad, who is married to Mark and also has a son, Chester, aged ten, who goes to St Mark’s Primary School at Hadlow Down.
The apricots came from Tesco but Mrs Broad said she knew that if she returned the packet she would never know what the creature was and it would probably have been destroyed. This way at least she was able to find out what it was.
She was pleased to learn that a millipede’s legs are directly underneath its body while a centipede’s stick out at the side. The creatures also contain cyanide but you would have to eat a lot of them to be affected, she was told.
| February 16, 2007 (Sussex Express)
Huge housing plan refused
Plans for 750 new homes on the northern outskirts of Uckfield have been refused by Wealden councillors.
The news was welcomed by campaigners opposing development at Downlands Farm but they are bracing themselves for an appeal against the decision.
More than 200 letters plus a petition of 469 signatures were sent to Wealden Council objecting to the plan and three members of the public spoke out against it at a meeting of the development control, north, sub-committee on Thursday.
One of them, Mr Michael Pope, said afterwards that he hoped the developers would now decide against an appeal. ‘There are so many flaws in their application, on the ecological front, the infrastructure front, on traffic and the sheer weight of traffic in the town centre. There are shortcomings in all these areas and they have missed so much on the environmental front.’
The Woodland Trust welcomed the refusal saying the development would have brought thousands of additional vehicle movements a day creating increased levels of car and lorry emissions that would have choked the rich ancient habitat within.
Councillors had been advised to refuse the application by officers who attached weight to objections from the Environment Agency, the Sussex Wildlife Trust and the Woodland Trust.
They also reminded members how the site had been considered and rejected during a review of the Wealden Local Plan. They said sites allocated for housing in the non statutory Local Plan were sufficient to meet Structure Plan housing requirements over the period to 2011.
An officers’ report to councillors said the site included habitats of nature conservation importance, including an ancient woodland complex, ghyll woodland, old herb-rich grassland, ponds and streams.
Protected species included dormice, great crested newts and bats, badgers and reptiles. The site also supported the skylark, song thrush and bullfinch and the lesser spotted woodpecker and marsh tit.
Ancient woodland and acid grassland would be directly affected by the plans, said the report, and there would be indirect impacts through fragmentation of woodland by construction of the road network, through possible changes to the hydrology in the ghylls and through exposure of sensitive habitats to urban activities, such as informal recreation, predation by domestic pets and rubbish dumping.
Officers were not convinced by an environmental statement accompanying the planning application which said many of the impacts could be mitigated by specialist tunnels and tree bridges to link the babitats of great crested newts and dormice, by controlling the quality and quantity of water run-off to the ghylls and by discouraging public access to sensitive areas.
| February 16, 2007 (Sussex Express)
Mill is inspiration for designs
New shops planned for the site currently occupied by the Market Hall at Bell Walk would be housed in a building planned in three sections which step down in height as they approach Bridge Cottage.
The architects Brooks/Murray say inspiration for the design has come from the typical Sussex watermill and plans show a comparison in height of the tallest part of the site with the water mill in Mill Lane.
‘The new building respects the scale of existing development but mirrors the architectural language of the mill the other site of the railway on Mill Lane,’ says the design statement.
The new building would stretch back further than the Market Hall across the car park and give a defined edge to the south side of the shopping centre. A riverside walk is proposed to run beside it.
The shops at ground level would be full glazed and double fronted, opening to both the north and south.
Inside the building would be shop units at ground floor, a restaurant on two levels, a warehouse on the first floor connecting with the ground floor, where one of the shops is expected to be Argos, and a gymnasium on the second floor.
The architects describe the present Bell Walk shopping centre as a collection of purpose built retail units build circa 1960-1980 of limited architectural merit.
They say: ‘We see here an exciting opportunity to redevelop the application site with the aim of realising its full potential within the parameters of its historical context.
‘We propose to replace the Market Hall building on the site with a new building that strives to interact harmoniously with its history and surroundings in a number of ways…’
| February 16, 2007 (Sussex Express)
Bid to give historic cottage viable future
Proposals to restore the historic Bridge Cottage in Uckfield town centre and open it up for use by the public are before Wealden Council.
The scheme has been prepared under the supervision of the Uckfield Preservation Society and will give an idea of how the inside of the building would have looked back in 1436.
In those days, according to documents produced by town-based W.A.S. Chartered Architects, it was a substantial timber-framed house, well above average size and built for someone of high social standing.
It would have had a large central hall open to a roof made of massive timbers designed to be decorative, as well as functional, and demonstrate the wealth of the owner.
Over the years two floors were inserted in the hall and fireplaces and chimneys added. The house also moved down the social scale ending up as two cottages.
By 1980 they were threatened with demolition but a joint fund-raising venture allowed it to be bought by the town council and eventually leased it to the preservation society.
Now the plan is to remove first floor partitions and the second floor. ‘This will provide a large room corresponding to the original hall, albeit at first floor level. With the roof structure and three crown posts exposed above it and the principal truss arching across it, it will provide a dramatic impression of the original space.’
The report goes on to say this room will form the centrepiece of the house and ‘an unusual and attractive venue for public or private functions’.
It is proposed to access the building through the annexe, currently housing a sweet shop, and build a room above to give space for archival storage, study facilities and new electrical, communication and alarm installations.
There are also plans to rebuild the main staircase and build an extension at the rear to house a kitchenette and servery to allow light catering for functions.
The aim is to achieve a ‘viable long term future’ for the building by providing the local community with a heritage centre that offers information about the area, supports craft, artistic and historic activities and interest, displays and explains the origin and history of the house, makes the house available as a venue for events and maximising its physical and social contribution to the community.
| February 16, 2007
Traders win town support
Uckfield Town Council is opposing demolition of the Market Hall in Uckfield and redevelopment with a three-storey building housing a restaurant on two floors, a gymnasium, a parade of shops – one of them for Argos – and a warehouse.
Members of the plans sub-committee which met on Monday night were concerned about the flood risk, overdevelopment of the site, parking provision and the impact of more traffic on the road system particularly in the area of the Tesco roundabout.
Market Hall traders poured into the meeting with supporters to voice their opposition. They were still upset because they only found out about the proposals last week and were worried about the impact on their businesses.
Other traders too were worried about the development. Mr Steve Archer told councillors he ran a business in the High Street which was unlikely to be affected by the proposals but others would be hard hit.
‘An Argos type store which sells everything could suck the life out of the High Street killing more retailers. There are five vacant units in the High Street at the moment and that figure will increase,’ said Mr Archer.
He was concerned about the Market Hall traders saying that even if they were offered space in the new development the retail units were smaller than the space they currently occupied
He also said the new building would be three times the size of the Market Hall yet there would be no more parking spaces.
Mr Neil McDonald, whose wife Val runs Toby George fish shop in the market hall, said they were concerned about flooding.
They had been victims of the ‘great flood’ in 2,000 and had to fight hard to have their claim met by their insurance company. They have since had difficulty in getting any insurance at all and have to agree to pay the first £2,000 of any future claim.
‘This is a flood plain, why should it be built on any further. If the project goes ahead I feel insurance companies will want an even greater premium. Forget about us, the whole thing is another flood is going to come and this is about making a decision to build even further on the flood plain.’
There was confusion about how long people had to make their views known on the planning application but the town council’s deputy clerk said a new notice was due to be put up in the window of Bridge Cottage which said the deadline for comments was March 5.
| February 9, 2007 (Sussex Express)
Indoor market set to be demolished
Plans to demolish an indoor market in Uckfield and replace it with a three-storey building housing a restaurant on two floors, a gymnasium, a parade of shops - one of them for Argos - and a warehouse have been submitted to Wealden Council.
Market Hall traders, at Bell Walk, who had no idea about the proposal, were shocked and worried this week about the future.
They did not know what they would do while the work was being carried out and they did not know whether they would be given space in the new complex.
Miss Justine Dunsmore, who runs the pet shop, said she had spent the last week reading about the plans on the council’s web site, looking for new premises and informing her customers who had promised their support.
It was Mr Kevin Baker, who runs a shoe repair shop opposite the market who told traders about the plan. He had been notified by the council and said it was out of order that the other traders hadn’t been told. He was also worried about the effects of the work on his business.
‘The front of my shop is only 22 feet away from that building. If they are going to put up scaffolding and start to rip it down how is the dust and everything going to affect me. I don’t work for a big company, this business is mine,’ said Mr Baker.
Miss Dunsmore’s shock was shared by Val McDonald of Toby George fish shop, baker Mitch Hazelden, Kizmet gift shop owners Tracy Heywood and Mary Oliver, JHP Cards and Books shop manager Nicky Russel and Catherine MacDonald of Sew ’n Sew who has been there for 20 years, with her mother running the business for 20 years before that.
Included in the planning application is a proposal to extend and carry out internal alterations to the historic Bridge Cottage which is next door to the market hall.
Mr Stephen Elliott who said he had a ‘very long lease’ on the sweet shop premises within Bridge Cottage and on the restaurant within the Market Hall was also surprised by the proposals.
He had since discovered that the plan was to turn the annexe of Bridge Cottage, which houses the sweet shop, into an entrance to the cottage and build another room above it. The cottage itself would be turned into meeting rooms and licensed to hold weddings. There would be a small extension at the back to provide catering facilities.
‘We have a very long lease on the sweet shop and the restaurant and so actually none of this can be done without our agreement,’ said Mr Elliott.
He had run the restaurant for three years and only completed refurbishment before Christmas. ‘I had no knowledge of this at all and have spent a lot of money on new furniture, decoration and new kitchen equipment.
‘Having seen the plans I think they are very good and would be good for Uckfield but I don’t think they will be good for me.’
Chamber of Commerce chairman Mr Francis Wallace said he was very concerned about treatment of the traders and promised them support if needed. The matter was to be discussed by the Chamber’s executive committee on Wednesday.
| January 19, 2007 (Sussex Express)
220 homes plan: a 'horrible problem'
Councillors faced a ‘horrible problem’ when they considered a planning application to build 220 homes in Eastbourne Road, Uckfield, last week.
The site had been included in the non-statutory local plan for Wealden but it was unpopular locally, said Cllr Jack Gore, at a meeting of the development control, north, sub-committee meeting on Thursday.
As reported in the Express last week the plan was finally approved. But three members of the public spoke against the application and councillors also expressed concerns.
Cllr Jack Gore said: ‘We have a horrible problem. This site has been approved for allocation in the non-statutory plan and a great deal of trouble went into putting it in there.
‘Every application is unpopular locally, there is not a single one that anyone at this table would say is not awful. But we were given the responsibility as a council to find sites for development and this was one of them. I can’t say I think it is a wonderful site but I don’t think a lot of the sites in the district are attractive and what we need.’
He urged councillors to seriously consider the effects of refusing the application saying that would allow every developer to rush in with proposals for land not included in the non-statutory local plan.
‘We either propose approval or go back to the council itself and say look, we have made a mistake over Uckfield and have put the sites in the wrong places.’ That he said would be a very, very major decision.
He proposed approval of the application and the vote was won with six votes in favour and four against.
There were two concerns attached to the approval. One related to design of the site and it was agreed that the head of environmental services should be given the power to refuse the application later if design issues were not resolved.
The councillors also requested that consideration be given to concern raised by Uckfield town councillor Len Ashby who queried whether developers had taken into account that water run off from an industrial estate on the opposite side of Eastbourne Road was carried through the site.
Solicitor Mr Vic Scarpa warned that in the event of a refusal the council could face a bill for costs from the developer ‘purely on the basis that Wealden have been promoting this site’.
The planning application and the sub-committee’s decision were referred for further consideration to the council’s regulatory committee which is due to meet tomorrow afternoon (Fri 19th).
| January 19, 2007 (Sussex Express)
Site could be 'urban extension'
The Bird in Eye site on the outskirts of Uckfield may have potential in the future to be a sustainable urban extension to the town, Wealden councillors were told last week.
Members of the development control, north, sub-committee were told that East Sussex County Council’s strategic planning view was that ‘The site may have potential in the longer term to be a sustainable urban extension to Uckfield.’
The comment, which was read out to members considering an application to build 300 homes to the north of Framfield Road, continued: ‘But this potential would need to be examined in the context of the district council’s Local Development Framework which would be able to examine the sustainability of alternative distribution strategies for Wealden including the transport and other infrastructure needed.’
Councillors, as reported in the Express last week, went on to follow an officer recommendation to refuse the planning application. Their reasons included the site being outside provisions of the adopted and non-statutory local plans for Uckfield and for the parish of Framfield, where the development would be.
* This site had been favoured by district officers for development when they began drawing up the plan which later became the non-statutory document. But there was so much opposition that it was withdrawn and alternative sites in Eastbourne Road, and at Sandpits, Lewes Road, were substituted.
| January 12, 2007
220 homes plan edges closer
But it's no go for Bird-in-Eye project
Plans for two major housing developments were due to go before Wealden councillors yesterday. One for 300 homes and business accommodation at Bird-in-Eye (North) and one for 220 homes and retail space off Eastbourne Road.
The Bird-in-Eye plan was recommended, by officers, for refusal and the Eastbourne Road for approval.
A report to members of the development control sub-committee, north, about the Bird-in-Eye application defends the council’s Non-Statutory Local Plan which has been much criticised because developers seem to be ignoring its provisions and applyng to build on land outside its scope, like that at Bird in Eye and also at Downlands Farm to the north of town.
There is a fear it will not carry the weight of a statutory plan and Uckfield could end up with many more new homes than provided for in the non-statutory plan.
But a report to Wealden Council’s development control sub-committee, north, about the Bird-in-Eye application said the non-statutory plan had been developed with the benefit of three rounds of public consultation and agreed by democratically elected members.
‘Indeed a number of planning applications relating to allocations in the non-statutory plan have been submitted and approved. Evidence in the council’s Local Development Framework annual monitoring report for the period 2004-5 does not suggest a compelling case to release additional land on a basis of undersupply.
‘It demonstrates that through the non statutory plan adequate land has been identified to meet the Structure Plan requirements from 2006-2011. Therefore, it is considered that the proposal, in principle, is not supportable.’
The report went on to say: ‘A developer-led approach, notwithstanding the holding of community workshops, does not override the strong policy objections to development here.’
It also said there were concerns about data supplied by developers with ecological surveys, the layout centred around retention of the existing industrial estate on the site ‘is flawed’ and there were concerns about the relationship of development to important trees and vegetation.
‘There is no mechanism to secure the necessary infrastructure required to sustain the development, particularly the bridge link over the railway line and stream. At the time of writing the off site highway works had not been agreed. Without these, the land remains an inaccessible site on the periphery of Uckfield. Granting permission here would perpetuate dependence on the motor car, clearly at odds with a key central plank of local and national planning policy.’
| January 12, 2007
'Roof tax' of £10,000 suggested
Developers wanting to build 220 homes off Eastbourne Road have offered to pay £10,000 a dwelling towards an Uckfield town centre traffic management scheme, according to a report to a Wealden planning meeting yesterday.
The council’s development control, north, sub-committee was told that while the county council was initially holding out for £20,000 a property they would not ‘stand in the way of a £10,000 contribution’.
The report also revealed that agreement had now been reached on a contribution of £5,000 a dwelling from the developer of a site at Sandpits, off Lewes Road, and so a decision notice approving up to 61 homes there was issued on December 21, 2006.
Wealden officers recommended approval of the Eastbourne Road plan. The report said homes on the ten-hectare site would be set back from the main road and accessed from a roundabout.
The developers were also offering to carry out works to close off New Road to through traffic because it was feared drivers from the new development would use it as a short cut to the A22 Uckfield by-pass.
It was proposed that 66 of the dwellings would be affordable housing including specialist social housing for wheelchair users. There were also plans for retail floorspace in the style of a ‘corner shop’.
The majority of buildings would be two storey with apartment blocks up to three storeys in height and the housing areas would be built around a central green open space. Equipped children’s play areas, casual play spaces and amenity areas were also included.
| January 12, 2007 (Sussex Express)
Cafe/bar bid at pavilion
Plans to turn the sports pavilion at the Victoria Ground, Uckfield, into a café/bar have resurfaced. An application for a premises licence is due to go before Wealden Council on Thursday.
The application has been submitted by Uckfield Football Club which leases the upstairs social area of the pavilion.
A year ago a long-standing member of the club, Mr Rick Pilling, who had run the bar as a volunteer, offered to take over the lease and open the bar to members of the public but eventually the club decided to retain the lease and nothing more was heard of plans to open it to the public.
Now the same man has written, representing the club, to Wealden’s licensing sub-committee in support of the premises licence application.
Mr Pilling was responding to opposition to the application from nearby residents worried about an escalation of anti-social behaviour in the Farriers Way/Forge Rise area.
He says in the letter: ‘We are particularly aware of the problems at Victoria because of the extra work and checks we have to perform before we can stage any sporting activity or use of the pavilion.
‘We have to clear the car park area of broken bottles and rubbish before cars can be brought in. The areas around the entrance doors to both social areas and changing rooms have to be washed down with disinfectant to remove the vomit and urine.
‘The playing surfaces have to be checked for needles, bottles and dogs mess. We have even, on one occasion, had to recover our goalposts from a neighbouring field.’
He goes on to say that while crime and disorder and public nuisance regularly take place at the Victoria Ground it does not take place around the pavilion or car park when the pavilion is in use. ‘Whilst the adult presence and the fact that we floodlight the car park area does not stop the town problems it does move it away from Victoria.
‘In the still dark areas of the car park adjacent to the playground the known drug dealing still carries on.’
Mr Pilling says the residents have very real issues with incidents at the pleasure ground and around their homes but they are not relevant to this licence application.
‘We would like to open our doors to all sports and casual users of the pleasure ground and not restrict the council-owned building just to a limited number of footballers,’ he says.
They aim to concentrate on retailing ice-cream, snacks, soft drinks, coffees, teas and confectionary. ‘We see the pavilion as a café/bar and not as a public house,’ he says.
One letter of objection to the application from Mr M.J. Tann says: ‘The residents are at the limit of their tolerance re sleepless nights and this could just push us all to take unilateral retaliation regardless of the consequences.’
Another resident, Mrs Kate Miller, argues in favour of the application. ‘My belief is that if increased usage of the facility takes place then the abhorrent behaviour suffered by myself and my neighbours may well subside.’
| January 12, 2007 (Sussex Express)
Leak empties leisure centre pool
Up to 100,000 gallons of water disappeared from the swimming pool at Uckfield leisure centre overnight on Saturday.
Early this week it was expected to remain closed into next week while repairs were carried out. Staff undertook a mammoth task in contacting regular customers, who include primary schools, the community college and children attending after school swimming lessons, to let them know.
Staff discovered the problem at 7.15am on Sunday morning when they found the pool half empty and the level still going down. Maintenance staff were called immediately before the building was checked make sure it was safe.
Duty manager Ian Cooper said he had expected to find the problem in the plant room but that was clear of water as were the lower levels of the building including squash courts.
Once he knew the building was safe the doors were opened to members of the public but the mystery remained of where the water had gone.
Maintenance manager Keith Newman eventually established that a metal coupling used in a repair 16 years ago had failed and allowed the water to escape. ‘We were concerned because we couldn’t find out where the water had gone,’ he said.
But then they discovered that at the time of the old repair, which involved major excavation, a drain was put in to carry away any future leaking water so all that escaping at the weekend was carried away safely.
He said they were awaiting delivery of specially made parts. Once they were fitted it would take about four days to re-fill the pool, heat it and get the chemical balance correct before it could re-open to the public.
Mr Cooper said the knock-on effect was huge and they were doing their best to inform regular users about cancelled classes. They had also been inviting people through to see the pool because it was ‘quite a sight’ empty when you knew how much water was normally in there.
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