Ringmer housing developments lead to concerns

Concerns have been raised over lorries supplying construction sites in the Ringmer area, through Bishops Lane and the B2192 leading from Lewes.

Katie Pettitt, of Bishops Lane, said: “The road structure is not adequate for the amount of housing development that is going on.

“We live in a brand-new house and it literally shakes with the HGV and construction traffic going by.

“People say they don’t want to lose this village feel, it has no village feel. It has become a massive construction site.”

Ringmer residents are upset with the number of lorries

The nearby developments have been for Cala Homes, Diplocks Yard and Bovis sites.

“I cannot imagine in this day and age, obviously you have to build houses, but you have to make sure the infrastructure is in place”, said Mrs Pettitt, “That means roads and all the other things that are necessary.”

Bishops Lane has a width restriction at one end meaning that lorries can only come in and leave one way.

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Mrs Pettitt added: “The worst thing is when lorry drivers follow their sat navs, it takes them down that end of Bishops Lane and they suddenly realise they have to do a three point turn, drive over everybody’s verges and go out the same way they came in because they can’t get through.

Richard Turner, Chairman of Ringmer Parish Council, said: “The major problem is, we have a massive Bovis development of 110 houses being built in Bishops Lane and the road just isn’t capable of handling it.

“I was on the planning committee at the time when it came up, and we were told in no uncertain terms by our planning officers that it was perfectly acceptable.

“If they say it is acceptable, you have to accept it, but it isn’t really in reality. It’s not the only place like it, not just around Sussex but around the country as a whole. Especially in the Southeast, we’re getting overdevelopment.”

The detailed design of the junction with traffic lights and a filter lane was drawn up as part of the planning process of the Bishops Lane development in Ringmer but is still yet to be completed.

Mr Turner added: “If you want all this development, you have got to put in infrastructure. But we don’t seem to put in enough infrastructure for all these new developments.

“Again, the planners will tell you that’s not a planning issue. Not having schools, not having doctors, not having adequate roads is not a planning issue, it should be, but it isn’t.

A spokesman for Bovis said that the company has plans to repair the damaged verges in May.

He said: “We continually monitor the condition of the verges and should they be damaged by our construction vehicles entering or leaving the development, we will of course repair them as we have done previously.

“We attend monthly resident liaison meetings, along with East Sussex Highways, and are in regular communication with the local authority on this."

Bovis had an application to form a dedicated construction access point at the top of the Bishops Lane site, rather than use the residential road as their main access point.

“unfortunately this was refused by the council," the spokesman added.

“In terms of safety, in agreement with the local authority we have installed traffic calming measures on the road outside the development. In addition to this, we have placed construction signage on both approaches to the site."

He said the works on Earwig corner is booked from June 1 and are expected to last for approximately 16 weeks.

He added: “Due to the sensitivity of the Earwig corner junction, the works need to be carried out predominantly over the school summer holidays.”