ADDITIONAL HOUSING SITES – Identified by Ken Davis, Chair HUDG
Schedule of (mainly) small housing sites in Hastings which could be open for development with some imagination and small changes in planning policy such as a small sites design guide.
It must be remembered when looking at such sites that they mostly require a different approach to what is acceptable in design terms other than a fairly standardised developer approach to housing.
This list is kept deliberately concise to show the variety rather than number of potential sites. For example I have excluded potential Railtrack sites.1.
1.Robertsons Hill . Potential for earth sheltered (Hobbit?) houses built into the bank.
2.Belmont Road (south end) unused land behind the prominent turret house as I call it. Space for one house behind the existing stone wall.
3. Old London Road towards Ore (back gardens of houses in Ashburnham Road): there are numerous roads in Hastings where their long back gardens reach down to another road so making access good. Similar at south end of Filsham Road plus adjoining church.
- Rear of shops on Old London Road (Ore approaches), former allotment plots for soldiers returning from WW1 but now unused and totally overgrown. Has road access. Now in the draft Local Plan.
- Corner of Church Road and Cherry Tree Close, St.Leonards. A small left over plot but suitable for one house. Could be earth sheltered to retain green value.
- Churchwood Drive (between Tesco and SLM): a wide and long open grassed verge area. Hard to see quite what this contributes to a very green wooded area.
7. Land/highway verge adjacent Plastica Pools works off Queensway A2692. This is ESCC highways land but represents a huge opportunity especially perhaps for it’s good road connections, proximity to potential work opportunities and great views! It is large enough to accommodate a large block of flats and raises the issue of just how inefficiently industrial/employment sites have been used in the past.
Opposite the above is a lightly wooded overgrown site which is allocated as part of the adjoining playing fields i.e not part of the pitches. A good tree survey and the use of screw piles means it could house 10-12 2 person prefabricated houses.
8. Clarence Road, Silverhill. An outline planning application was refused on this site which backs onto 1 Bohemia Road backing Clarence Road, and another outline application is in for one of the gardens further along also for 4 units but it has now been approved for development HBC. Great location backing Alexandra Park.
9. Bexhill Road adjacent rear of TKMaxx. A narrow wedge of land originally purchased by ESCC for a bus layby but never carried out. Could take 4 small houses or a flat development of perhaps 6-8 units.
10. Land to rear of Woodland Vale Road (accessed via number 49 WVR). This is backland between WVR and London Road which has long gardens. Suitable for a sustainable housing cooperative of some sort who want some adjacent planting space.
11. Summerfields: behind and to one side of the sports/swimming centre there is a substantial green area with no trees which, while pleasant enough to walk across is not of great biodiversity value. A triangular housing block of perhaps 5 or 6 storeys (there is an existing 5/6 storey flat block nearby on Bohemia Road) could be accommodated here without affecting the wooded valley. It might be lifted off the ground with green space running under it. There is also further space adjacent which could take 2 or 3 further blocks. There is space at the front of the site adjacent to Bohemia Road for a half in the ground/half out which could take car parking with a green and solar panel roof over it.
12. Wellington Mews (service road backing shops on Queens Road): another backland site similar to Clarence Road. If this mews like street where is London these potential back plots would have been filled years ago. I am now working on a co-op housing development here.