Design development
How the design is evolving
What shapes the design
Five things move the design on
Every change we make comes from somewhere. We will tag each update so you can see what drove it.
Neighbour feedback
Comments from residents through this consultation.
Surveys and site
What the ecology, trees, drainage and access work tells us.
Statutory consultees
Responses from bodies the council must consult.
Planning officer
Feedback from the local planning authority.
Independent design review
Scrutiny from an expert design review panel (see below).
A commitment to quality
Putting the design in front of an independent panel
We have committed to take this scheme through independent design review with Design South East. That means the proposals are examined by a panel of experienced architects and designers who are not part of our team.
Their job is to challenge us and to test whether the layout makes the most of this location. It is a deliberate check on quality, and a sign that we want this to be genuinely well designed, not just approved.
The scheme has now been before the panel twice, in August and October 2026. We publish the material we put to the panel, and the panel’s reports, on our documents page as they become available.
The story so far
A record of change
The design after a second independent review
We returned to the independent Design South East design review panel on 13 October 2026 and presented how the design has developed, together with a nearly complete layout. This is an outline application: its job is to settle the parameters and principles of the development and to show that the site can comfortably accommodate the homes proposed, with the detail of each home and the public spaces worked up later at the detailed planning stage. You can read the material we put to the panel below.
The starting point
The first masterplan responds to the shape of the site, the trees around it and the slope. It keeps the wooded edges, takes access from Maybourne Rise, and arranges the homes around green space and sustainable drainage. This was the version we shared at our first public consultation.
As the consultation runs and the scheme develops, new versions will appear here, each with a note on what changed and what prompted it.
Help write the next version
If your comment leads to a change, this is where you will see it. Tell us what you would want the next draft to do differently.