Lavington Stud plan supported in principle

The deadline for the public to provide comments to South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA), which will determine the case, is 23 September.

The application, with more than 100 supporting documents, was validated by the SDNPA on 26 August, when it posted to the SDNPA planning website and to the estate’s neighbours.  You can see the application and leave your comments at bit.ly/lavington-plans

Lavington Stud and Estate straddles the border of Graffham and East Lavington civil parishes.

At Calloways, in Graffham civil parish, the established development approval for converting former agricultural buildings into 11 dwellings would be changed.  The plan now is for six homes and seven ‘enterprise’ units, intended for local artisan craftspeople and not-for-profit organisations, again as indicated in the consultation exercise.  The old forge there would now be retained because of its historic interest and the existing framed barn kept for agricultural storage.

The application describes this new approach as “delivering a well-balanced scheme that secures the long-term preservation and enhancement of a historic farmstead, supports the estate’s diversification objectives,  bringing employment opportunities and economic benefits to the estate and the area generally”.

At Home Farm, the centre of the former stud operation, in East Lavington civil parish, the plan is to demolish many of the 20^th Century stable ranges and barns and replace them with a new eco-friendly principal estate house with a swimming pool and tennis court, as indicated in the consultation exercise earlier this year.  What was the domain’s manor in days gone by is now Seaford College’s Mansion House.

Traditional courtyard buildings would be renovated to become seven self-contained holiday lets, offices and a multifunctional space for education, estate meetings, ancillary residential use and an anticipated 18 tourist visitor events a year.  Other buildings would be retained as existing stables and storage.

Traffic access  No changes to the access arrangements for Home Farm or Calloways are proposed. .  The traffic analysis says the proposal would generate fewer daily movements compared to the plans already approved for Calloways and the stud that operated at Home Farm and would not result in an unacceptable impact on highway safety or adversely affect the existing routes through the village.

If approval is granted, a ‘construction traffic management plan’ would need to be signed off.

Graffham Parish Council position  At its meeting on 3 September, Graffham Parish Council agreed to support the application in principle, provided that strict and enforceable conditions are imposed, requiring all traffic to access Home Farm, during the construction phase and afterwards, via Seaford College’s grounds, rather than through Graffham, with traffic also restricted between Calloways and Home Farm.

It also asked that an enforceable transport construction management plan be agreed to limit nuisance during the development and that the business units at Calloways be restricted to artisan or light workshop use only, with enforceable limits on hours and deliveries.

In providing the council’s comments to SDNPA, Chairman of the parish council’s Planning Committee Fiona Jacob stated: “We cannot emphasise strongly enough that the traffic burden – both during construction and once the developments are occupied – must not fall solely on Graffham.”

Tangletrees  At the same meeting, parish councillors also resolved to support in principle he latest planning application to replace Tangletrees, overlooking Graffham Recreation Ground, with a new house, while noting concerns that the proposed land use swap involved created an unwanted precedent, although this was an  issue for Chichester District Council to decide upon.

Decision on both applications will be made by the South Downs National Park Authority in due course.