Petition Deadline: 20th February, 2024
The petition will be presented to the Planning Officers & Committee as a part of my written submission as the local member ahead of the relevant planning committee meeting (likely March 13th).
Deadline for sending a written objection: 9th February, 2024
Planning Application No.: WD/3490/CC
To view the application please click here
To comment on and/or object to the application please click here
Dear Resident,
Many of you will be aware that the Burfield STEP Academy in Oaklands Way has for some time been in breach of a key site planning condition which requires parental access via the school gates to a kiss-and-drop facility.
Repeated requests from East Sussex County Council for the school to adhere to this requirement and reopen the gates have been met with a blanket refusal with no proposed mitigations.
Failure to adhere to the condition has led to at times perilous near misses for young school children, severe congestion in adjacent roads, and restricted access for some residents to their own houses at peak times.
The School have temporarily moved off-site to facilitate modifications to the buildings in preparation for their return this autumn, they are now seeking to have the original planning condition overturned.
As your County Councillor, I have been asked by many residents to oppose this proposal and I am seeking your views.
If you oppose the Burfield Academy Planning Application to remove the kiss-and-drop condition, can I ask you to sign the petition, and also if possible write to East Sussex Planning Committee outlining your concerns.
Best regards,
Gerard Fox
County Councillor, Hailsham New Town
cllr.gerard.fox@eastsussex.gov.uk
The Application to close the school gates permanently to the kiss-and-drop facility without credible mitigations might be opposed on a number of grounds, including:
The concerns which underpinned the justification for the original planning condition for a kiss-and-drop remain, and if anything are much much worse.
The school is not an island and its risk assessment must take adequate account of what happens on both sides of the now closed school gates. Its does not do this well and the School Travel Plan is inadequate to these challenges.
Traffic chaos outside the gates at peak times and severe congestion in adjacent roads with obscured sight lines puts young children at risk, and restricts access to emergency services.
The limitations on access are putting parents and residents in an impossible position. Restricted room for manoeuvre is leading to parking on pavements, blocking, turning or parking across driveways causing distress.
The school has been in perpetual breach of the condition and have not demonstrated themselves to be a responsible or trustworthy stakeholder which means that future assurances from them cannot to be taken at face value.
The original planning application to build the school won many objecting residents over with the proposal for a kiss-and-drop. To reward breach of the condition by overturning it undermines confidence in the entire planning process.
It should be possible for a collaborative solution to be reached but the school seem unwilling to do this.
N.B.: Data collected in association with this campaign will be retained until a workable resolution has been achieved.
