Arun fears government consultation 'will be just a sham'

The concerns of Arun District Council about the possible 5,000-home development were emailed to the government's housing minister, Caroline Flint, early on Tuesday morning.

Her officials had given the council a few extra hours after Monday's deadline for public comments to allow the council's formal reaction to be given.

A special council meeting held on Monday evening left no doubt about the views of Arun's members.

Cllr Paul Dendle (Arundel) said: "This is a half-baked, half-brained scheme at Ford which will fast become an eco-slum. I am worried the government has already pre-determined this and any consultation will be a sham."

He was among the councillors who voted 36-2, with three abstentions, to adopt their select committee's recommendations.

The hour-long debate ended a unique sequence of events in Arun's 34-year history. A special cabinet meeting in April paved the way for a select committee to be set up solely to examine the eco-town proposals from the Ford Enterprise Hub trio and the Ford Airfield Vision Group of landowners and developers.

The select committee held five days of examinations in public of a range of witnesses to produce a 30-page report. This covered all aspects of the proposed eco-town, from the roads to the intended power plant to convert waste.

That report formed the subject of Monday's meeting. Councillors queued up to support the committee's findings.

Cllr David Biss (Bognor Orchard) said a development the size of the eco-town would fail without an Arundel bypass.

The 4,000 jobs proposed for the eco-town were shrouded in mystery.

"No one is telling us where these jobs are. If they are not there, why are we being told they are. If they are there, why are we not being told what they are?" he asked.

Cllr Barbara Oakley (Middleton) quoted the Middleton-on-Sea Association's critical response to the plans which questioned the criteria used to select Ford as a possible location and the reasoning behind any reduction in car use in the environmentally friendly settlement.

"Those that the gods want to destroy are given Caroline Flint as housing minister," she quipped.

Cllr Simon McDougall (Bersted) said any pretence the eco-town would be self-sufficient was destroyed by the procession of lorries taking waste to the intended power generator from around the south-east.

Cllr Dr James Walsh (Littlehampton Beach) labelled the scheme 'not so much an eco-town, more a gigantic waste disposal project to power a power station surrounded by a speculative development'.

Cllr Ricky Bower (East Preston) said he feared the scheme would be forced onto the district.

"Ms Flint keeps saying the scheme is going to be subject to the planning process but I have yet to be convinced that she has any knowledge of the planning system," he stated.

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Council leader Cllr Gill Brown (Aldwick East) said: 'We need more houses, of course we do, especially to help young people get onto the property market.

'Local authorities must have the power to do that through the established planning framework. Houses need to be sustainable as well but also in the right places where people want to live.'

Only Cllr Mike Northeast (Littlehampton Ham) spoke up for the eco-town.

He described the opposition to it as knee-jerk political opportunism but he said he was also saddened by the government's unnecessarily rushed timetable for considering the plans.

He welcomed the impact the proposals had on making Arun consider social housing and creating sustainable housing.