LATIMER DEVELOPMENTS LIMITED

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GENUINELY AFFORDABLE HOME EXAMPLE - This Land Rover is carrying water that is poured into deep holes dug in the soil by a digger to determine drainage of the land. You can see the old Generating Works in the background, dating from C.1909. This historic asset, and many groups in the locality derive their water supply from an ancient well that is at the foot of this slope. To the right of the 4x4 is a registered public footpath. There are other common-law footpaths in the area that we do not think Wealden's officer mentioned to their Councillors who, if that turns out to be the case, were being asked to make a decision based on incomplete information. We also believe that the National Planning Policy Framework document dating from 2012, was not adhered to in connection with conservation issues. Copyright photograph © June 28 2018, Herstmonceux Museum Limited. All rights reserved. You may not copy this picture except for educational use.

Latimer Developments Limited is a company that develops building projects and sells and rents houses. They are working with the Clarion Housing Group Ltd and Thakeham Homes Group Limited on a proposed development at Herstmonceux in East Sussex. This site is in the Wealden District, with Herstmonceux Parish Council and Wealden District Council both approving the development on an outline basis with a narrow vote of just one to tip the balance in favour of approval.

As you might imagine from the mix of house builders and developers, there is perhaps more than meets the eye to the inter-company dealing and agreements where the site is thought to have changed hands for around the £3 million pound mark (to be confirmed). That's an awful lot of money for a site that is supposed to deliver a mix of market value and affordable housing and where Clarion advertise the development as being worth £21.5 million pounds for seventy homes.

That equals = £264,286 per house, minus the infrastructure levy, or community charge of £3,500 per unit (averaged) = £260,786 per dwelling unit. Build per unit (averaged) is likely to be £150,000 including roads, drainage and other services, making the profit £110,786 x 70 units = £7.75 million pounds. A fair chunk of change for the controlling mind and other shareholders to dibby up. That sort of figure is hardly worth spoiling an ancient well, historic view and other public places.

CLAIMS IN DAMAGES

It is likely that with any conditions imposed and based on the current site plan from 2015, that herbicides and pesticides will contaminate the ancient well that supplies water to a number of concerns in Lime Park, and cause a loss of opportunity as to bottling local water as a means to provide funding for the upkeep of Herstmonceux Museum, a building of significance in the development of man leading to the age of electricity and a monument included on a Protection Programme from 2000 onwards.

The ancient well provides water that is exempt from water rates that would otherwise be charged @ around £200 per annum, 100 years supply = 20,000.

Bottle water sales @ 100 x 52 x £3 x 100 yr supply = £1,560,000 million pounds. Multiply sales x 300 units a year and the loss of opportunity rises to £4,680,000 by way of a potential damages claim, to which must be added a sum for damage to the historic environment.

JUDICIAL REVIEW

Given that Wealden had not included any conditions in relation to the ancient well, but included water and contamination in Conditions: 6, 14, 15, 26, 27, 28 and 30, we must assume that the planners had not thought about the potential harm they would be causing in granting permission on this Greenfield site. The same applies to the consultees, surveyors and others compiling reports to be used in connection with the application - and to persuade the members of Wealden's Area Plans South Committee, Susan Stedman as Chair, to grant this permission in outline form.

It must then be that those reports and the comments of the Council were insufficient and unreliable insofar as being able to make a properly informed decision. Where any decision based on incomplete or inaccurate information is held to ultra vires as per R v Canterbury City Council (ex parte Springimage Ltd) 1991.

We wonder then at the inbuilt perils for the developers of this site that potentially face claims in damages and/or judicial review on an ongoing basis as fresh evidence or information comes to light.

POTENTIAL FRAUD INVESTIGATION

We wonder if all of the appropriate declarations were made at the various committee stages of decision making.

We know that the District Planning Officer, Kelvin Williams, misquoted the law as it applies to developments in the country in at least one other case that was quashed by the High Court on application for a Judicial Review. This officer is retiring in the next 12-24 months. It would be worth looking at the pay of those officers with significant controls within the council, and cross link that information with bank accounts and any development where they had an interest in. We also know that the Parish Council had a relation of a local building company present when they voted on the matter. Similar checks might be applied locally and at district and county levels, where ESCC Highways lodged no objections to an access that is demonstrably substandard.

The case officer at Wealden is Mrs Claire Turner. At least one of the affected parties have spoken with Mrs Turner and written to the this Council seeking clarification and assurances. This includes Robert Standley, the Leader of the Council, and Charles Lant, their Chief Executive. We understand that the new District Planning Officer is Christopher Bending.

WATER CONTAMINATION - If houses are built on the hill that supplies the last surviving well in Herstmonceux, all of those who presently enjoy a sustainable water supply are likely to be poisoned by pesticides from the gardens of the proposed housing. In addition, where the hard standings of a proposal for 70 houses are to be gully drained to a point lower than the twin wells, soakage that supplies the wells will be diverted away potentially starving the wells of water and increasing pesticide accumulations from the proposed garden areas. The amusing cartoon above portrays the situation that perhaps the developers were not aware of, when they bought into a situation that they should have been able to rely on - if there had been a competent appraisal by Wealden District Council, the County Archaeologist and the Environment Agency. Unfortunately, the council concerned and the advisers to the original applicants appear to have been less diligent than they might have been in the rush to profit from a windfall situation. The developers in this case are confirmed to be: Clarion Housing Group, Thakeham Homes and Latimer Developments. Previously, the site was owned by Tim Watson and then Gleeson Developments. We understand that Mrs Claire Turner and Christopher Bending are two of the planning officers now with responsibility for this application which reached the detailed (reserved matters) stage in August of 2018.

OVER DEVELOPMENT

The subject of village over-development is high on the agenda in 2018, where such development is unsustainable in climate change terms, as per the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs). For example, where carbon miles are important, nobody seems to have considered that without additional school places, a bus will have to pick up and transport children from Lime Cross, to other schools in the area.

The original application was filed in 2014 under the name of Tim Watson. This was withdrawn and an identical application filed under the name of Gleeson Developments. Clarion took over at some point in 2018, presumably, giving instructions to Thakeham to investigate the site and conclude a 106 Agreement with Wealden as to drainage.

We feel sure that the rush to push this through no matter what corners are cut will give grounds for the Secretary of State to consider calling in the grant, for a review of how this application was passed on incomplete information, but the failure to take note of the National Planning Policy Framework as to sustainable development. We are after all trying as a country to meet the targets set by the Climate Change Act 2008.

WD/2015/0090/ HERSTMONCEUX VILLAGE CONDITIONS A - Z INDEX

GEOGRAPHIC SPREAD AND SCALE

Latimer Homes ........

POSSIBLE REASONS FOR CALL IN OR  JUDICIAL REVIEW - There are many reasons to doubt the validity of the grant of planning consent on this site where Kelvin Williams was the officer presenting information to the Area Plans South planning committee, and his presentations concerning Berwick have been shown to be ultra vires. We do not yet have the recordings of Mr William's assertions but are looking into obtaining a copy to review what was said to the members of this council and if the law quoted was accurate.

For one thing, it appears from this aerial photograph that there are many more public footpaths than are shown on the ordnance survey maps. We are hoping to gather more information as to different years and testimony from persons who have lived in Herstmonceux for over 20 years.

Proposals for sewage disposal appear to us to constitute a serious health risk and may well be unsustainable. This was a windfall site, not part of the quota for Herstmonceux village, which goes some way to explaining why it is that there are no schooling places for the children of the proposed residential development. Is this kind of over-development sustainable? Hardly.

MARCH 2018 - "Clarion Housing Group’s private development company, Latimer, will deliver 70 new homes near Hailsham in East Sussex.

Latimer bought the 6.20 hectare agricultural site in Herstmonceux on 1st March from Thakeham Group.

The scheme, which has a GDV of £21.5m, comes with outline planning permission for 45 homes for private sale homes, 17 homes for affordable rent and eight homes for shared ownership.

The deal follows on from the Group’s acquisition last October of a site on land south of the A271 at Amberstone, on which it will build more than 100 new homes. 

Richard White, Director of Land and Planning at Latimer and Clarion Housing Group said: “We want to deliver 50,000 new homes over 10 years and we aim to achieve this by buying land ourselves, like this site in Herstmonceux, which we can turn into housing.

“This scheme has a great location as it’s positioned in an attractive village on the edge of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

“We are pleased to secure the site which further underlines our commitment to delivering much-needed new housing in East Sussex.”

Latimer has appointed Thakeham Client Ltd (part of the Thakeham Group) to build the development, which will have a mix of one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom homes.

Steve Tuhey, Managing Director at Thakeham Client, said: “We are delighted to be working with Clarion on this important development. Thakeham has a track record of working with Clarion and we’re delighted to be bringing our in-house design, planning, project management and construction skills to bear on this prestigious site.”

Work on site is due to start at the end of this year and completion is planned for 2021."

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

According to their website .....

CLIMATE CHANGE ACT 2008 & THE NATIONAL PLANNING POLICY FRAMEWORK

The Climate Change Act 2008 spells out the standards for emissions that add to global warming. These include houses that are as near energy self-sufficient as they might be and electric or other zero carbon vehicles.

The objective is to get the United Kingdom below 1990 emission levels by the year 2050. It's a tall order no matter how you look at it, requiring new houses to be built with energy harvesting features, none of which are evident on any plans as we write and must be included. Especially where Clarion claim to endorse sustainable policies.

ABOUT HERSTMONCEUX VILLAGE & PLANNING APPLICATION WD/2015/0090/MOA

The village at Herstmonceux is served by a very few local shops and one junior school that is overloaded. Locals are being priced out of the housing market steadily - a trend that is not in accord with a sustainable society. How then will a dubious windfall grant of permission for seventy houses that were not in the local plan, suddenly find the services for those houses - where services are already stretched? Most villagers believe that this was a moment of madness on the part of the Area Plans South Committee, where they followed flawed guidance from Kelvin Williams, quite possibly as was granted in the village of Berwick, but was undone when a Judicial Review revealed flawed advice from Wealden's planning officers.

THE APPLICANTS

The original application to develop this land was filed in December 2014 in the name of Tim Watson and (possibly joint) land owner Sue Goldsmith. This application was withdrawn and a second identical application was filed in January of 2015 in the name of Gleeson Developments Limited. The proposal was approved subject to negotiations as to reserved matters which included drainage for the 70 houses proposed.

According to Wealden's Administration & Technology Manager, the applicant, Clarion Housing Group is working with Thakeham Homes Ltd, a company that appears to specialise in village developments, as far as we can see from their website. This is not surprising given the veritable land rush in 2014-2015 when councils were handing out consents like confetti hoping to make up for their lack of foresight in the provision of affordable housing in years gone by.

According to their website: "MJ Gleeson plc specialises in urban housing regeneration and strategic land trading. Latest Share Price: £ 567.00p at 11th January 2016." It is important to note the "Land Trading" element in the context of planning approvals that may have been pushed through on a very narrow margin and with some advice by planning officers that was not full, contained misquotes as to statute and the Local Plan, and failed to advise on other material considerations.

TRENCH DIGGING - Thakeham Homes Group appear to have ordered this series of trenches to be dug, to conduct a series of drainage tests, where water is poured into the trench and the rate of absorption measured. The deal between Thakeham Homes and Clarion Group is yet to be defined. No doubt an audit of their accounts will reveal this in due course.

OBJECTIONS

Apart from the fact that there are no places at the local school and public transport is one bus every hour from Stagecoach - with journey times to Eastbourne of around an hour, Herstmonceux benefits from a very rare generating building from the turn of the century that is now a working Museum, and that Museum  is linked historically to the Windmill at Windmill Hill. At the moment you can see across the field from the public footpaths to both buildings - one of the rarest views in the world - and a reminder of the days when windmills ground flour for a local bakery to bake the daily loaves.

This generating building relies on water from an ancient well and the well is at the foot of the hill on which Gleeson Developments would like to build around 70 houses. A blot on the landscape maybe, but it gets worse. Water from the hill feeds the ancient well. It follows that any land contamination from the construction process, or in years to come from the domestic development, will filter down to the water table and enter the well water. The water level in the well rises and falls with rainfall from the gently sloping hill. There is no escaping this fact. But so far there have been no assurances or confirmation of a Bond to cater for future claims.

HINKLEY, CALIFORNIA - GROUND WATER CONTAMINATION - The town of Hinkley, California, located in the Mojave Desert, (about 121 miles driving distance north-northeast of Los Angeles) had its groundwater contaminated with hexavalent chromium starting in 1952, resulting in a legal case against Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and a multimillion-dollar settlement in 1996. The legal case was dramatized in the film Erin Brockovich, released in 2000.

Residents of Hinkley filed a class action against PG&E, encaptioned Anderson, et al. v. Pacific Gas and Electric (Superior Ct. for County of San Bernardino, Barstow Division, file BCV 00300.

In 1993, Erin Brockovich, a legal clerk to lawyer Edward L. Masry, investigated the apparent elevated cluster of illnesses in the community linked to hexavalent chromium. The efforts of Brockovich and Masry, and the plight of the people of Hinkley, became widely known when the film Erin Brockovich was released in 2000.

After many arguments, the case was referred to arbitration with maximum damages of $400 million. After the arbitration for the first 40 people resulted in roughly $110 million, PG&E reassessed its position and decided to end arbitration and settle the entire case. The case was settled in 1996 for $333 million, the largest settlement ever paid in a direct-action lawsuit in U.S. history.

In 2006, PG&E agreed to pay $295 million to settle cases involving another 1,100 people statewide for hexavalent chromium-related claims. In 2008, PG&E settled the last of the cases involved with the Hinkley claims for $20 million.

TAINTED CONSENT?

That would mean that every person buying a house on this field would be first in the chain of litigation claims. All the householders would need to do is allow herbicides and pesticides from their gardens to enter the watercourse. The same goes for engine oils and paints.

Knowing that this is sure to be a future issue, the Museum operators will need to constantly monitor activities in the field next door to be able to prove who the culprits are. The house owners, even if they are at fault, will then need to claim against their house insurance - and they may well find that they are not covered where no 106 Agreement exists and there is no Bond to cater for contamination claims. If their home insurance covers claims against negligent development, and/or the grant of a permission that then proves to be void, their homes would have to be demolished. In such cases the developers would need to compensate the home buyers for not making appropriate provision and/or otherwise safeguarding the planning consent.

It may also be that where this field suffers from flooding at the other end, that has to be provided for at the design stage, that remedial and preventative drainage is likely to alter subsoil water flow characteristics - leading to wider claims, such as with landslip. It all depends on the soil characteristics and geological strata juxtaposition.

At the moment the local authority are being asked to explain which of their officers provided information to the committee who passed the application. Other questions also need to be answered as to Declarations of Interest, since this application was passed by only one vote. It may well be that after scrutiny, the planning consent is deemed to be void. Members voting on applications need to do so on an informed basis. If there is any failure to advise on the part of the officers, such as Kelvin Williams, the district planning officer. The Chief Executive officer of this council is Charlie Lant.

CONSTRUCTION

In light of the above, every stage of the construction process will need to be monitored to be sure that if the development goes ahead despite the know issues, that there is a photographic record of who did what. We are off to a good start with exploratory holes being dug at the top of the hill near an specimen oak and another exploratory hole or trench being dug not many feet from the ancient well.

FOR THE RICH & THOSE ON BENEFITS

On their website Gleeson say: "Owner occupiers shoulder responsibility for their homes & are stakeholders in society, which is why we refuse to sell our homes to private landlords. We are happy to see our customers profit from their purchase but we do not wish to put the profit into the pockets of private landlords."

The truth is that the houses that will be built on this field in Herstmonceux will be bought by private landlords for renting. This is what is happening in the village and outlying hamlets. Why? Because working families cannot afford to live in Herstmonceux, with own transport being a prerequisite and these days that means two cars per family. Families on low incomes will qualify for Housing Benefit and on that benefit landlords grow fat. It is only with Housing Benefits that these houses will be occupied - making the affordable housing situation worse.

Copyright photograph © June 28 2018, Herstmonceux Museum Limited. All rights reserved. You may not copy this picture except for educational use.

LATIMER DEVELOPMENTS LTD @ COMPANIES HOUSE

LATIMER CUSTOMER CARE

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LINKS & REFERENCE

https://thakeham-client.com/

http://www.clarionhg.com/news-research/2018/march/latimer-to-deliver-70-new-homes-in-herstmonceux/

https://www.latimerhomes.com/

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/companies-house

http://www.eastofbrightonroad.org.uk/

LINKS & REFERENCE

https://www.latimerhomes.com/

https://thakeham.com/

https://www.clarionhg.com/

http://www.pge.com/

http://mj.gleeson-homes.co.uk/

http://www.gleeson-homes.co.uk/

http://www.taylorwimpey.co.uk
http://www.sir-robert-mcalpine.com
http://www.barratthomes.co.uk
http://www.wates.co.uk
http://www.redrow.co.uk/

http://www.taylorwoodrowinternational.com

Latimer homes

Thakeham Homes Ltd

Clarion Housing Group Limited

Barratt Homes

Cherry Homes

Gleeson Homes

Mcalpine
M J Gleeson

Redrow Homes

Taylor Wimpey
Taylor Woodrow International

Wates

Latimer Development Limited

Thakeham Homes Limited

Clarion Housing Group Limited

Barratt Homes

Cherry Homes

Gleeson Homes

Mcalpine
M J Gleeson

Redrow Homes

Taylor Wimpey

Wates

WD/2015/0090/ HERSTMONCEUX VILLAGE CONDITIONS A - Z INDEX

LOS ANGELES (LA) TIMES APRIL 2015

Maneuvering his pickup through this Mojave Desert town, resident Daron Banks pointed at empty lot after empty lot.

"Last time I was here there was a home right here. There was a home here, there was a home here," he said, making his way down the bumpy road in the place made famous by the 2000 film "Erin Brockovich."

Fifteen years after the film showed triumphant residents winning a $333-million settlement with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. for contaminating its water — and nearly 20 years after the settlement itself — Hinkley is emptying out, and those who stay still struggle to find resolution.

For residents, questions remain about the safety of the water, just how much contamination PG&E caused and how to fix it.

This year, a final cleanup plan is moving toward approval. Last month, a long-awaited, five-year study to determine how much contamination PG&E may be responsible for finally got underway.

"At some point in the next few years we're going to get some closure," Banks said.

But today there's little left in Hinkley beyond some scattered homes and acres of alfalfa and other grasses, planted to help clean the contamination.

"You had a great community out here and now it's gone," said resident Roger Killian.

Hinkley was a small farming community in the 1990s when residents learned that groundwater was polluted with chromium 6, a cancer-causing heavy metal. It had seeped into the water after being dumped into unlined ponds at the utility company's compressor station in the 1950s and '60s.

Since then, hundreds of residents have left. Property values dropped because of the stigma surrounding the town, and PG&E launched a buyout program.

Roberta Walker, a plaintiff in the original lawsuit and Banks' mother-in-law, said that at the time of the settlement, residents like her believed the plume of contamination was limited to a well-defined area around the compressor station.

But in 2009, PG&E "let it get away from them and it started migrating toward other properties," said Lisa Dernbach, a senior engineering geologist specialist with the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board, the state agency overseeing the cleanup. That resulted in a $3.6-million fine against the company in 2012, she said.

Jeff Smith, a PG&E spokesman, said what looked like growth of the plume was actually the result of additional testing in areas that had previously gone unexamined. Dernbach said the migration happened after the utility changed pumping in some extraction wells.

More recently, the contamination plume appears to have shrunk. Kevin Sullivan, director of chromium remediation for PG&E, said a system installed in 2007 to treat the contamination with injections of ethanol has reduced the chromium by 40%.

Starting in 2010, PG&E offered to either provide clean water or buy properties of residents whose wells tested positive for chromium.

Smith said that when the program was announced, there was a high level of anxiety in the community and many residents wanted to sell their properties rather than take the water. The company, he said, wants to see Hinkley thrive.

"I think sometimes it's misconstrued that PG&E wanted to come in and purchase a tremendous amount of land in Hinkley and that was just not the original intent," he said.

Between 2010 and October 2014, when the program was formally discontinued, PG&E purchased about 300 properties, he said.

With residents leaving, the school could no longer be sustained. It shut down two years ago.

The owner of the property that houses the town's post office and only market recently approached PG&E asking to sell and the utility agreed to buy, Smith said. The post office closed last month and the market will soon follow, an employee said.

As residents leave, the cleanup has progressed and technologies have improved. About 250 acres of alfalfa and other grasses now dot the town where some properties once stood and are used to help convert chromium 6 into the micronutrient chromium 3.

But despite the progress, many Hinkley residents still worry about how much chromium 6 will remain in the water. PG&E is required to clean up to the levels at which chromium 6 naturally occurs in the groundwater — a number known as the background level.

A study commissioned by PG&E a few years ago said chromium 6 naturally occurred in Hinkley groundwater at levels of 3.1 parts per billion.

"Anything above 3.1 provided a lot of anxiety to the people in Hinkley," said Dernbach, of the water control board.

Last year, the state of California set a safe drinking water standard of 10 parts per billion.

Although levels of chromium 6 nearest to the compressor station — where no residents remain — exceed that by large numbers, PG&E's testing in domestic wells elsewhere in the community shows chromium 6 levels below 10 parts per billion, most often between 0 and 5, Sullivan said.

Smith, the PG&E spokesman, said the state-designated level has helped ease some residents' concerns.

But others say they are disturbed that chromium 6 is showing up in their wells at all. Some say neighbors and family members have suffered ailments they believe were caused by the contamination, leading them to believe that even low chromium levels are dangerous.

The safe drinking water standard adopted by the state — which is hundreds of times greater than a non-enforceable public health goal set by the state Environmental Protection Agency — has been criticized as too high by some environmental groups.

For years, residents questioned whether the study commissioned by PG&E putting the background level at 3.1 parts per billion was even accurate.

Banks solicited help from John Izbicki, a U.S. Geological Survey research hydrologist who has studied naturally occurring chromium 6 in the Mojave Desert. With pressure from residents, PG&E acknowledged that its earlier study was lacking. It is paying for a five-year study led by Izbicki that is expected to conclusively determine the background level.

At a community meeting this month, fewer than a dozen residents gathered in the Hinkley Community Center to hear Izbicki describe his upcoming study.

Izbicki said water samples would be sent to Germany, Nevada, Virginia, Northern California and other places for testing. Some of it would be handled in the same USGS labs that do testing for NASA.

When he was done, the meeting's facilitator asked longtime resident McHenry Cooke, 81, if he would "trust the data."

"I haven't reviewed it all," he said skeptically.

As the meeting wrapped up, John Turner, who volunteers to keep the community center open, said he felt optimistic about the town's future. For years, community meetings have been filled with negativity, he said, but this one was productive.

He hopes PG&E will play a role in helping to rebuild the community so residents can move forward. "It's time," he said.  By Paloma Esquivel

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