Plan for 226-home development in Lewes: chance to have your say on major project

South Downs National Park Authority made the announcement on Friday, December 15, saying Top Hat Communities Ltd had submitted a planning application for a housing development at Old Malling Farm, in Old Malling Way.

They said this relates to ‘reserved matters around the scale, layout, external appearance and landscaping of the proposed development’.

A spokesperson said: “Outline planning permission was granted for the site in March 2022, including the provision of affordable housing, public open space and associated infrastructure including vehicle and pedestrian access from Monks Way. The site is allocated for housing in the South Downs Local Plan.”

People can submit comments via the National Park Authority’s Public Access System until January 26, 2024. Visit planningpublicaccess.southdowns.gov.uk/online-applications and search for SDNP/23/04659/REM to view the plans.

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Vicki Colwell, principal planning officer, said: “This detailed application relates to the design, scale and form of the proposed development at Old Malling Farm. It’s really important that people comment on the application via the National Park Authority’s public access system, rather than via online petitions, other websites or comments on social media otherwise there’s no guarantee we will receive their comments.”

The application’s design and access statement (Reserved Matters Application, October 2023) said Top Hat is ‘a privately funded modular house builder, passionate about delivering sustainable places for people to live’.

It said the 226 dwellings will include one-bed homes to four-bed homes. It said: “The variety of types are arranged in harmony with the landscape creating a series of distinct character areas responding to the local context.”

It added: “As the UK’s leading ultra-low embodied carbon home builder, our vision is to create homes that are sustainable to build, beautifully designed and that are affordable to live in.

“TopHat create beautiful, sustainable homes using highly automated production processes in a high-tech manufacturing facility. This eliminates the usual mess and disruption that traditional building techniques entail and brings with it a wealth of benefits including dramatically less transport to site and therefore less emissions, less disruption to neighbours, less pollution and waste, greater safety for our teams, and greater cost and programme certainty.”

The site is on the northern side of Lewes town, between the Malling Housing Estate and the Malling Farmhouse.