A contentious plan to build a two-storey “garage-studio” in an historic part of Military Road is inviting further controversy, after a radically different design was lodged on Rother DC’s website when the applicant’s second attempt to win planning approval ran into trouble.
Local residents were surprised to see three digitally-altered images appear on RDC’s planning website in early April, showing a changed design with black wooden cladding and large windows. Several people expressed concern at the lack of early consultation and suggested the latest building proposal is larger than before and even more out-of-keeping with the historic Rye Conservation Area in which the site lies.
On 26 April, two historic photographs were downloaded to the website — again with no details of who submitted them — but in what seems like an attempt to persuade residents that the garage-studio is justified simply because buildings previously occupied the constricted space just south of the Globe Inn, squeezed between busy Rye Hill and Military Road.
RDC later admitted in response to a resident’s enquiry that “improvements to the scheme were being negotiated” along with the applicant and conservation officer. The Council said the images possibly formed part of these negotiations, but that “no formal amendments have been submitted, which is why there has been no re-consultation [with residents] or update via Rother Alerts”.
Site inside Conservation Area
This leads one to conclude that the applicant is simply floating his changed design plans in a bid to gauge the public’s response.
The garage-studio plan initially failed to gain approval in January 2020, under another planning application, because of “unsympathetic form and design” and because the tiny site south of the Globe Inn sits inside Rye Conservation Area. A total of 31 local people objected to the original application and 37 signed a petition against the controversial project, which is the scheme of a resident who lives in Landgate, several hundred metres from the site.
The case officer responsible for the current planning application departed Rother District Council suddenly in January, adding to the administrative difficulties which have already seen the application stretch beyond a year.
A major stumbling block involves the applicant’s insistence on an upper floor, ostensibly to accommodate a garden-design studio for his wife. In 2019, RDC asked the agent to agree that the structure should be described as “a two-storey building comprising a garage with studio flat above”. This, and the planning history, has led to assertions that the ultimate aim is to convert the property into a dwelling for sale or for use as a holiday let.
Residents should be kept informed
The site’s size has already forced the proposed building into an awkward sideways position that risks obstructing the much-valued view from the top of Military Road to the Globe Inn.
Interestingly, in June last year Rye Conservation Society described the current application as an “overtly domestic design”, suggesting that the scale of the building did not lend itself to the approach. Two planning applications to extend the neighbouring Globe Inn were recently rejected.
Rye News readers may note that the applicant, or his agent, appear to have digitally manipulated the new images to remove most of the vehicles habitually parked on the west side of Military Road. The other image, a real one, shows the true car parking situation in Military Road at 7.15am on a Thursday. Would anyone be able to tell which image is real, and which has been digitally altered?
Certainly, a general issue worrying residents is that neighbours and local people feel left “out of the loop” when it’s revealed their own district council has been working closely with property developers to shape a project for planning approval, particularly when most affected residents oppose the project. In the case of the garage-studio, RDC has promised to give people another say.
Greater transparency is needed with planning
However, there is inevitably a feeling that residents’ views are just an inconvenience to the planning authority. If true democracy and transparency in planning were a reality, the Council would surely update local people about discussions with developers on a regular basis.
Planning decisions affect people’s lives in a profound way. My view is that the public deserves fairer treatment, more timely and better consultation and far greater transparency from our councils in planning matters. Unlabelled documents, digitally altered images and misleading statements submitted by developers, or documents lodged in an irregular fashion, should be flagged up as such, rather than tolerated.
Householders who flaunt planning conditions should be properly penalised, not scolded and let off. Development should only be supported where it is appropriate for the locality — taking into account an area’s character, conservation status and allocating appropriate weight to residents’ views in the planning process.
Readers wishing to lodge comments on planning application RR/2020/493/P can go online to www.rother.gov.uk and follow the links to ‘Search Planning Applications’, where they can register their comments using the above-mentioned reference number. At this stage it’s unclear whether the latest altered design will force RDC to order another planning application, although this would surely be inevitable if the applicant formalises his amendments.
In the interests of transparency, please note the author of this article is a local resident with no political affiliations.
Image Credits: Planning application at rother.gov.uk , David Worwood .
Its interesting to read the controversy over the new build in military road,for people unaware ribbon development on that side of the road used to go right up to the bottom of Rye hill, as for the houses opposite they were due to also be demolished and were only saved from the bulldozer at the very last minute. Sadly we lost the stone Alm houses, which were sacrificed for the enterance of North Salts, by allowing two houses to be built in the Globe Inns garden, Rother district council have set a precedent for others to try and get planning permission on this busy road.
I would suggest that the Rother District Council sort out the parking problem within Military Road before considering further planning applications. Military Road has fast become the ‘car park’ for Rye since the introduction of the new parking controls within the town centre. Cars park along both sides of Military Road making in difficult for passing cars!
Hi Garry,
You raise an important point that is the concern of many local people. The situation is complicated in that East Sussex County Council are responsible for on-street parking (such as that in Military Road) while Rother District Council are only responsible for their off-street car parks.
This situation is crying out for some joined up thinking. You can read more of the debate here: https://www.ryenews.org.uk/news/gibbet-marsh-revisited
The most important thing concerned residents can do is to get out and vote today. The polls are open and your vote matters.
Best wishes,
Ash
Is part of the problem here that this construction is black clapperboard which makes it stick out like a sore thumb ? If it were white, like The Globe, would here be less objection ? I like The Globe a lot. But I suspect many people hated it at first. And to be honest there’s nothing else like it on Military Road, so it too must have been a sore thumb once. If it were white clapperboard, and matched The Globe and many other New England style homes in and around Rye, it may offend less people. Though I accept some people may think it’s too tall.
All of the many traffic issues aside I fail to see why the recent inclusion of the photograph taken at the bottom of the hill some 150 plus years ago has any relevance to the current planned development. It’s a charming & bucolic image, but I suspect only so as there are no cars/lorries/double parking. Military Road is a Conservation area, so any further development should be automatically a nonstarter. Maybe there is some conflict of interest with in RCS? The suggestion that a ‘New England’ style would be more acceptable; in other words another pale pastiche of the pretty Globe like the squat white houses built to the North… (NO THANK YOU!) completely misses the point. If a garage is so desperately in need, why is it required to be two storeys in height?
Why do you reject New England style properties being built ? Take a walk through the lanes around Military Lane and there’s lots of white clapperboard buildings. There’s even the appropriately New England Lane. Pretty much all of them are charming. You may think they are a pastiche, but surely The Globe was once classed as pastiche too ? So I cannot fathom why you’re against a style of building that fits in with the history of the area. And regards your question “why is a garage required to be two storeys in height” the post clearly states ‘garage-studio’ .. that would be a garage at ground level and a studio above.
The site was sold by ESCC for ‘Amenity’ use, e.g. a garage and the original plan, as outlined in a letter from the purchaser and posted through the doors of some residents, was for a garage with a small loft above. When the first planning application was submitted the following year it was for a garage with a studio/flat above, which had had the shower and hob removed! The design in the 2nd application looked more like a 2-bed house, not of a garage with studio/flat above. Then this year, by chance, a resident noticed photographs had been added to the documentation section of RR/2020/493/P. The new design has a totally different appearance and even bigger, not at all in-keeping with anything else in Military Road. More important is who sneaked these photographs onto the website without the public having any notification and opportunity to comment? There has been no mention in the weekly email for Rother Alerts and we are still waiting for a Pink Notice to appear for a new planning application.
Re John’s comment above re the houses built in the garden of The Globe, RDC REJECTED the planning application, but Johnathan Jempson appealed against this with a company from Bristol and won his case.
Margaret O’Neill