After months (or is it years?) of arguments, re-drawings and general discussion, Amicus Horizon, the housing association charged with the re-development of Tilling Green, have finally withdrawn their planning application.
Many aspects of the development have been criticised at one time or another and the community centre, in particular, was a major bone of contention. Originally a two-story building that would house the offices of, and be run by, the Rye Partnership, the new building was to have been built before the old one was demolished.
However it appeared that the site, including the existing Community Centre would be cleared before any building started, leaving the regular users of the building without a home for some considerable period. At the same time, the size of the building shrank to a single story and Rye Partnership seemed to lose interest.
Despite this, all was set to go ahead, subject to final approval from Rother D.C.
One of the problems of the site was the potential risk of flooding. Amicus Horizon had liaised with the Environment Agency and believed they had come up with a scheme which would remove the danger, however following the receipt of revised guidance from the E.A., the developers would have been forced to re-design the buildings with a raised ground floor. The significant additional cost of this now made the scheme, as planned, no longer financially viable and for this reason the planning application was withdrawn.
At first glance this looked like the end of the matter. Amicus Horizon, however, seem to be made of sterner stuff and say they are unwilling to give up, just yet. Neill Tickell, their development director, still wants to make the scheme work and says, “We’ll work hard to balance the costs, local housing needs and design, to create a high quality scheme that’s affordable and fits well into the existing environment.”
So all is not lost and it seems that the discussion on how to create a new development on this spot that will satisfy the aims of providing decent, affordable housing that is safe from flooding, visually pleasing and financially viable to construct will go on for some some months, at least, yet.
We will continue to follow progress and although a further delay will be a disappointment to many, at least the Tilling Green Community Centre remains available for use for the time being.
Library image
Image Credits: Rother District Council .