Conservation campaigners have hit out at the council for refusing to take part of a nature reserve off a list of housing development sites.
The Friends of Whitehawk Hill successfully fought Brighton and Hove City Council’s plans to build hundreds of low cost homes on scrubland at the top of the hill earlier this year.
Now, they are pushing for the area to be taken out of a key planning document – the draft City Plan Part Two – in which it is earmarked as somewhere homes can be built in the future.
They say that their requests have been turned down flat, and planners have even refused to meet them.
But the council says no objections to the site being included were lodged during two previous consultations, and to include their objections now would be unfair to all those who did respond.
Friends of Whitehawk Hill chair Richard Bickers said: “The City Plan is a Brighton and Hove Council plan, and the council should take ownership of the decisions about these sites – not wash their hands of it and leave it to the Planning inspectorate!”
The City Plan, a planning blueprint, takes several years to draw up and the first part was approved following several rounds of consultation in 2016.
In 2013, a planning inspector told the council to find more urban fringe sites for housing so it could meet its targets for building new homes.
Part of Whitehawk Hill was one of several sites included in the second part of the plan, which has also been consulted on twice, in 2016 and 2018.
A council spokesperson said: “When drawing up local development plans, all councils have to follow strict national regulations setting out the processes which are established in law.
“Our officers have followed these rules and explained the process to members of the Friends of Whitehawk Hill.
“The City Plan Part Two (which builds upon the already adopted strategic City Plan Part One) sets out site allocations and policies to help shape future new development for the city.
“Since officers started working on the plan in 2016, two rounds of public consultation have taken place – at the ‘Issues and Options’ stage in 2016 and then on the Draft Plan for 10 weeks from June – September 2018.
“All ‘duly made’ representations received during the prescribed consultation timelines have been looked at by council officers.
A small number of urban fringe sites were proposed for some housing development during the consultation on the Draft City Plan Part Two in 2018 and objections were received relating to a number of sites from local residents opposing development and from potential developers seeking more development. There were no objections made to the proposals for some residential development at the site which falls within part of ‘Whitehawk Hill’.
