Millbrook Garden Centres are carrying out a Public Consultation about a proposal to build houses on an old redundant nursery site in Crowborough.

Details are on display in the Crowborough Millbrook Garden Centre and the following information has been sent to Crowborough Life in answer to local residents questions:

Tim Allen, Director of Lanndia, is dealing with the process on our behalf alongside Peter Brett Associates and says: 

"I am pleased to provide a response on behalf of Lanndia, who are appointed by the landowner to promote the site on their behalf.

"The site is still in the ownership of the family that own and operate the Millbrook Garden Centres, and has not been sold or changed hands in recent years.  The site is now surplus to requirements as the ability to grow plants in a small nursery is uneconomic in the face of large scale commercial growing operations.  Therefore, we have been investigating options for alternative uses for the site, the first step of which was to regularise the planning status with an application for a lawful use certificate.  This was granted at the end of last year, and shows that the site comprises a combination of the nursery and commercial land uses related to office, manufacturing and assembly and distribution activities.

"The proposals for housing on the site recognise that the area is predominantly residential in nature, and that this type of use would be more sympathetic in terms of activity and the type of traffic that may be generated compared with the potential uses from the lawful use if the site were sold on as it stands.  The illustrative masterplan was presented at the public exhibition and then left available to view in the Garden Centre for a further week, and we have been pleased to receive a number of feedback forms and comments on the proposals as shown, which we are now considering.

"The access is one of the key issues that needs to be considered, and a Transport Statement will be submitted with the planning application in due course which will address the issues around when traffic is generated and what type of traffic.  This will consider the historic use of the site, what it could be used for as it stands and the effects of a change of use to residential development.  However, a residential land use is likely to result in cars and light vehicles compared to the heavier vehicles that could be generated by the lawful uses if these were to be continued perhaps with a different owner of the site.  We would look at improvements to the configuration of the access to the site.

"We anticipate that an outline application will be lodged in the summer this year, and we would be pleased to receive comments with respect to the future of the site at the Treblers Road email address (Treblersroad@peterbrett.com).  There will, of course, be further opportunity for local people to comment on the proposals as they are developed further and go through the planning application process."