Housing association AmicusHorizon has reluctantly withdrawn its plans to build new homes and a new community centre at Tilling Green.
The housing provider will not be submitting a further planning application and confirms it will no longer be proceeding with its proposal to build on this site.
It had planned to create an attractive cul-de-sac style development featuring 32 homes for rent and shared ownership, as well as a state of the art community centre. However, the costs of delivering this scheme have dramatically risen, meaning it was no longer financially viable to deliver the project.
AmicusHorizon had been working with Rye Partnership, who currently run the existing community centre, to deliver the plans and East Sussex County Council who are the current land owners.
East Sussex County Council are now considering the future use of the site and will be working with Rother District Council and Rye Partnership on the development of plans and next steps.
There had been local concern about the risk of flooding on site. To mitigate this risk, AmicusHorizon was forced to raise the height of the ground floor of the proposed units after receiving new guidance from the Environment Agency. This added substantial extra cost to the development and led to an increase in roof height not in keeping with the area.
A lack of additional grant funding to cover the cost of the centre and secure the land left AmicusHorizon with little option but to completely withdraw.
Neill Tickle, Development Director (Counties) at AmicusHorizon, said: “We’re extremely disappointed we had to make this decision, but delivering the high quality scheme we planned just didn’t make economic sense. We tried our very best to find a solution. We desperately wanted to deliver a scheme the local community would be proud of and which fitted into the existing environment. But it was simply not viable to continue when you compare the considerable extra build cost today to the cost estimated two years ago. We have informed East Sussex County Council (ESCC) and Rye Partnership of our decision. We remain committed to working with them in the future to deliver excellent housing for local people.”
Photo: Rye News library
Image Credits: Rother District Council .
So with the increase in young families in the area ; Valley Park etc, will the County Council now fulfill their duty & use this very serviceable (bear in mind , that when it was constructed in 1953 , it was deliberately with sufficient foundations , for any extra story) school for the needed purpose , rather than porta cabins on the Love Lane site …? With the opening of the new scout hut & other under used facilities etc there is plenty of day time capacity in the town for community use …
This is disappointing as many organisations including the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group and REACT(for flood risk) have committed time and effort to see a successful development scheme. We know that Amicus faced many challenges in seeking a design to meet the demands of all the interested parties. In the end, it appears that a viable solution could not be found. We now wait for ESCC and Rother District to advise about future intentions for the location.
RNPSG
The public consultation quickly raised shortfalls in the scheme, including:-
1 The housing layout was very mundane and harked back to the old days – cul de sac, rows of semi-ds with dozens of cars in the gaps between and little public space. I suggest an open architectural competition, or architecture students from Brighton and Canterbury could be asked to present more exciting, sustainable designs suitable for the 21st century.
2 A proportion of the houses were for sale. Surely Housing Associations should be providing truly affordable well-designed homes for rent, not building spec schemes using public funds.
3 The first designs for the community hall showed the main access from a car park at the rear! This appears to have been amended but the design is still mean and could involve the existing hall being demolished long before its replacement is ready, threatening the existence of several groups currently using the hall. Incidentally this building is a good example of a post-war school which could be upgraded at far lower cost than building a substandard new hall. A similar school in Lenham, Kent is still in use and is praised by Pevsner.
4 If the current owners lack the will or resources to design a good scheme, the site should be handed over to the Town Council or another Housing Association with a better record of innovative designs; they do exist.