Newhaven housing plans spark controversy and concern for infrastructure

Development plans for Harbour Heights promises 400 new affordable homes and new employment spaces from Savills and BECG, but the plans have not been welcomed by some residents.

Their vision “is to deliver a sustainable community featuring new homes including affordable housing along with other significant community benefits. This will include a nursery, café, employment space, and infrastructure upgrades. There will also be environmental improvements, a net gain in biodiversity, and public open spaces including a new ‘Shell Park’.”

The project was initially part of the 2016 Local Plan under the then Conservative controlled council. The Council is now a co-operative of Greens, Liberal Democrats and Independent Councillors.

Councillor MacCleary, Liberal Democrat, opposes the plans, claiming that this is the latest in a series of projects which are “gentrifying the town”.

He is the first leader of the District Council to live in Newhaven, with around 800 new homes due to be built near his road.

He says that the infrastructure and facilities cannot cope with the hundreds of new homes being built in Newhaven, and that there are a lack of NHS dentist spaces in the area, school places are scarce and GP surgeries are overstretched. The council are working towards a new doctor’s surgery in Newhaven, but he says that further investment in infrastructure is needed to accommodate new residents.

The Councillor has spoken to parents in the area who live a walking distance from Seahaven Academy who were allocated secondary school places in Brighton.

The council “can’t require new homes to accompany infrastructure development”, and the town’s increasing population is “reaching breaking point”, he says.

Sewage infrastructure was also raised as a concern, after Southern Water released untreated sewage into the river earlier this year.

MacCleary said that the project "should never have gone into the Local Plan in the first place. Had I been a local councillor in the first place I would have stopped that", alleging that "money is what drives all of this at the end of the day.”

A public consultation drop in session will be held on Wednesday 18 January between 4pm and 7pm at The Hillcrest Centre, Bay Vue Road. The virtual exhibition is open for comment until January 25 and can be found on the town council website.

Savills and BECG are “keen to engage with residents and other important local stakeholders on our proposals for the site” and say that “the site is in a sustainable location and would form a logical extension to Newhaven, enabling the town to meet its current housing and employment needs.”

They aim “to reinvigorate this part of Newhaven, the Harbour Heights scheme will deliver new housing, shops, community facilities, additional employment space, infrastructure upgrades, environmental improvements, and new public open spaces.”

In a statement, Councillor McCleary said : “Newhaven is taking a lot of housebuilding at the moment and this is a direct result of the Local Plan which put most of the new housing for the District in the town. We need new homes, but we also need the infrastructure to go with them.”

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