image credit: Jan Barron
We have received a number of enquiries today (1 September) about whether there is a planning hearing open to the public about the Tavern site, this coming Thursday (September 5). We may have missed something, but this is our response. There is no ‘planning hearing’ open to the public that we are aware of in relation to the Beach Tavern.
—Bay Life, 1 September 2019
There is no ‘planning hearing’ open to the public on 5 September that we are aware of in relation to the Beach Tavern.
Such a meeting would have to be posted well in advance of this point. Any such meeting open to the public would be at a Wealden Council Planning South Committee meeting, and the public would have been notified in advance of the time.
The last Planning South Committee meeting of Wealden District Council was held on 15 August 2019. The next Planning South committee meeting is to be held on 12 September.
There is a possibility here that a public meeting has been confused with the parish council meeting to be held on Thursday 5 September. This meeting is certainly one open to the public and may include an item on the agenda related to the parish council concern about the Beach Tavern from an environmental point of view. This matter certainly includes Wealden Council, namely a local Wealden Councillor.
Having said that, the meeting, although open to the public, would have no bearing on any decision to be made by the Planning South Committee, a decision might well be imminent, but is yet to be made.
The Parish council only acts as a consultee in this process and does not make any decision on the planning application related to the Beach Tavern.
Given the importance of this story to the village, we would be very interested to know the source of this suggestion about a meeting on 5 September.
A public meeting has been mooted as a possibility. The developer who has represented Ray Foss, the owner, following a previous parish council meeting ,was in discussion about this possibility. We would be interested to know if possibly the developer has organised such a public meeting for 3 September. In the circumstances, this seems to be unlikely.
