Cranbrook & Sissinghurst Neighbourhood Plan

Feria Urbanism has been appointed by Cranbrook & Sissinghurst Parish Council to help them prepare a neighbourhood plan for this Kent parish.

Located on the road linking Maidstone to Hastings, Cranbrook is five miles north of Hawkhurst. The smaller settlements of Swattenden, Colliers Green and Hartley lie within the parish. Baker’s Cross is on the eastern outskirts of the town. Cranbrook is on the Hastings Beds, alternating sands and clays which are more resistant to erosion than the surrounding clays and so form the hills of the High Weald. The geology of the area has played a major role in the town’s development, deposits of iron ore and fuller’s earth were important in the iron industry and cloth industry, respectively.

Our early work involved the organising and running of two community design workshops, both held in March 2017. These events allowed a variety of different community groups to have their say on a range of planning and design issues. More work followed with a three-day design forum in May 2017 and a poster exhibition of draft planning policies in November 2017.

We are now steering the revised plan towards submission to the local planning authority.