Another attack on our heritage assets

Grade 1 listed Abbas Hall

 It really grieves me to see that, despite the fact that we have a new District council, there appears to be no sign of any change in the attitude of Babergh’s  Planning Committee when it comes to the preservation of heritage assets, both built and natural.

Following the experience that the council has had with the Prolog site (see full story and related posts above),  it might have been thought that members and officers would take more care when it came to the consideration of the recent application by Persimmon to build 160 ‘poorly designed’ homes at Carsons Drive, a controversial site in Great Cornard.  The houses will not only be close to Grade 1 listed Abbas Hall, but their construction could compromise the view of land immortalised in the renowned early Gainsborough masterpiece Cornard Wood.*

The Carsons Drive application has already been refused once, a decision upheld on appeal.  However a revised scheme was passed by the Committee this time.  Of course the composition of the Planning Committee has been radically changed by the election.  I am afraid that I do not believe that it is an accident that the developer waited to have another go when a brand new committee was in place.  He was applying to a committee that now contains a number of new and inexperienced members understandably unwilling to stick their necks out at their first meeting.

If the Sudbury Free Press is to be believed it appears that due regard to the claim of heritage assets was once again downplayed.  Committee Chairman, Peter Beer’s comment, that the views of local people had been ‘balanced’ with the need to make the future of the district ‘sustainable’ was, given the extent of public opposition,  frankly risible.  Moreover if we are to accept the representative of Persimmon’s comments as reported, then housing and development will always trump the demands of the natural and historic environment.  Replication of this decision elsewhere would be a disastrous outcome for South Suffolk as a whole.

Thomas Gainsborough RA, Cornard Wood, 1748,  Oil on Canvas, National Gallery, London.

*Gainsborough scholars debate the extent to which the artist depicted real scenes, and to what extent he created idealised landscapes in his studio in the fashion of the Dutch landscape masters that he emulated.  Generally it is believed that he took the latter course in most instances. Cornard Wood is however a very early picture, painted when the artist returned to Sudbury from London following his early marriage, and it is not inconceivable therefore that this was a scene from life.