Regulation 18 Consultation
12 weeks from 30 April – 23 July 2024
We are preparing the new Rother Local Plan. It will guide development and land use in our district over the period 2020 – 2040. We want to work with our communities to shape Rother’s future and we are seeking your views.
The draft Local Plan has two overall priorities: “Green to the Core” and “Live Well Locally”:
- Green to the Core emphasises the need to consider the impact of our planning decisions on the climate emergency, biodiversity crisis and the High Weald National Landscape.
- Live Well Locally recognises that in all planning decisions, the goal is to create healthy, sustainable and inclusive communities.
With these two overall priorities in mind, the draft Local Plan includes proposed strategic policies relating to the distribution and delivery of housing, employment floorspace, community facilities and supporting infrastructure across the district. The Plan’s policies will also help to ensure that the district’s unrivalled natural and built heritage are enhanced and protected, while the matter of climate change is central throughout. When adopted, the Plan’s policies will be used to determine planning applications.
The consultation on this draft (Regulation 18) version of the new Local Plan will run from 5pm on Tuesday 30 April to 5pm on Tuesday 23 July 2024. The comments made at this stage will be important in shaping the Local Plan as it is further developed into the Proposed Submission Plan next year before the final version is submitted to the Planning Inspectorate for independent examination and adoption by the Council.
How to participate
The easiest way to make comments on the Local Plan, and its key supporting documents, is through the consultation webpage, available by clicking the button below.
Comments can also be submitted using the consultation form (Please Note: The PDF is provided as a printable copy of the consultation form. An accessible version is available on the webpage linked above), or, in hard copy, at the locations listed below. If you wish to submit comments by email, please send them to: draftlocalplan@rother.gov.uk. If you wish to submit comments by post, please address correspondence to: The Planning Policy Team, Rother District Council, Town Hall, Bexhill-on-Sea, TN39 3JX. Please note that submissions made via post will not receive an acknowledgement that they have been received.
Hard Copies Available
Hard copies of the draft Local Plan can be viewed at a number of locations including the Council Offices, libraries and community libraries. Paper copies of the consultation form can also be obtained from these locations. The full list of locations and their opening hours is set out at below:
- Bexhill Town Hall, 5 Amherst Road, Bexhill-on-Sea, TN39 3JX which is open from 9am to 4.30pm (Monday, Tuesday & Thursday), 10am to 4.30pm (Wednesday), 9am to 4pm (Friday).
- Battle Library, 7 Market Square, Battle, TN33 0XB which is open from 10am to 4pm (Tuesday), 10am to 1pm (Wednesday), 11am to 6pm (Thursday) and 10am to 5pm (Friday and Saturday).
- Bexhill Library, Western Road, Bexhill-on-Sea, TN40 1DY which is open from 10am to 1pm (Monday), 10am to 4pm (Tuesday), 1.30pm to 5pm (Wednesday), 11am to 6pm (Thursday), 10am to 5pm (Friday and Saturday).
- Hastings Library, Brassey Institute, 13 Claremont, Hastings, TN34 1HE which is open from 10am to 5pm (Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday), 10am to 1pm (Wednesday) and 10am to 6pm (Thursday.
- Heathfield Library, 21 High Street, Heathfield, TN21 8LU which is open 10am to 1pm (Monday and Saturday), 10am to 5pm (Tuesday), 2pm to 6pm (Thursday), 10am to 4pm (Friday).
- Hollington Library, 96 Battle Road, St Leonards on Sea, TN37 7AG which is open from 10am to 1pm (Monday, Friday and Saturday), 10am to 4pm (Tuesday), 10am to 5pm (Friday).
- Rye Library, 30A High Street, Rye, TN31 7JG which is open from 10am to 5pm (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday), 10am to 1pm (Wednesday) and 10am to 4pm (Saturday).
- Wadhurst Library, High Street, Wadhurst, East Sussex, TN5 6AP which is open from 2pm to 4:30pm (Monday and Friday) and 10am to 1pm (Wednesday and Friday).
- Northiam Community Library, next to the village hall, which is open from 2pm to 4pm (Thursday and Saturdays).
- Ore Community Library, Old London Road, Hastings TN35 5BP, which is open from 10:00 to 16:00 (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday).
- Ticehurst Community Library, village hall, is open from 10am to 12 noon (Tuesday), and additionally during May only from 11am to 12 noon (Saturday).
There is a public access computer at Bexhill Town Hall, which can be used to view the draft Local Plan along with its supporting evidence base documents.
Public Exhibitions
We will be holding a number of public exhibitions around the district to promote the draft Local Plan. Please come along to talk to Council officers and find out more. A list of exhibitions is set out below:
| Town | Location | Date | Times |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rye | Rye Partnership, Tilling Green Community Centre, Mason Road, TN31 7BE | 21/05/2024 | 2pm – 6pm |
| Battle | Battle Memorial Hall, High Street, TN33 0AQ | 22/05/2024 | 3pm – 7pm |
| Bexhill | Pebsham Community Hub, 70 Seabourne Road, TN40 2SW | 28/05/2024 | 3pm – 7pm |
| Brede | Brede Village Hall, Cackle Street, TN31 6DX | 04/06/2024 | 2pm – 6pm |
| Ticehurst | Ticehurst Village Hall, Lower High Street, TN5 7BB | 06/06/2024 | 3pm – 7pm |
| Bexhill | Beulah Baptist Church, Clifford Road, TN40 1QA | 12/06/2024 | 3pm – 7pm |
| Rye | Rye Community Centre, Conduit Hill, TN31 7LE | 13/06/2024 | 3pm – 7pm |
| Battle | Battle Memorial Hall, High Street, TN33 0AQ | 19/06/2024 | 3pm – 7pm |
| Westfield | Westfield Community Hall, 21 Workhouse Lane, TN35 4QL | 22/06/2024 | 1:30pm – 5:30pm |
| Bexhill | St Marks Church Hall, Green Lane, TN39 4BZ | 25/06/2024 | 2:30pm – 6:30pm |
| Bexhill | The Pelham, Holliers Hill, TN40 2DD | 02/07/2024 | 3pm – 7pm |
| Fairlight | Fairlight Village Hall, The Broadway, TN35 4DA | 11/07/2024 | 3pm – 7pm |
Call for sites
To inform our evidence base for the new Local Plan we have invited landowners, agents, developers and other interested parties to put forward sites for consideration for housing and economic development, and also sites for Gypsy and Traveller pitches.
Our initial assessment of those sites that have been submitted for housing or economic development is contained in the draft Housing and Employment Land Availability Assessment (HELAA) which is published as part of this public consultation on the draft Local Plan and can be found in the Supporting Evidence Base Documents.
Sites that have been submitted for gypsy and traveller pitches are listed within the Identifying sites for Gypsies, Travellers and Travelling Showpeople in Rother – Interim Report (April 2024), also published as part of this public consultation, although these have not yet been assessed.
The HELAA does not identify enough ‘potentially developable’ housing sites to accommodate the Government’s objectively assessed need for Rother, and the interim report on gypsy and traveller pitches does not identify enough land to accommodate the assessed need for pitches. Therefore, the Call for Sites remains open. Sites not included within this first version of the evidence will still be assessed, and conclusions detailed in a later version.
For further information or to submit a site, please visit the Call for Sites and Gypsy, Traveller and Travelling Showpeople Accommodation Needs pages.
The Call for Sites is being extended, to now include a call for sites for nature. We are seeking to identify land that could contribute to nature recovery and meet Rother’s off-site Biodiversity Net Gain requirements. Farmers, land managers, communities and conservation groups are invited to put forward possible sites where new wildlife habitats could be created.
