Community urged to help shape Littlehampton’s future

NEW homes, leisure venues, a long-awaited health facility, a new secondary school and far better road links are among the top priorities for the draft Neighbourhood Plan for Littlehampton.
L11070H13-Planning - L11075H13-Planning  090313  LP

Neighbourhood Plan.Town Councillor, Jill Long,  with a copy of the draft for the new Neighbourhood Plan for Littlehampton. Pictured by the old housing officers. Littlehampton.L11070H13-Planning - L11075H13-Planning  090313  LP

Neighbourhood Plan.Town Councillor, Jill Long,  with a copy of the draft for the new Neighbourhood Plan for Littlehampton. Pictured by the old housing officers. Littlehampton.
L11070H13-Planning - L11075H13-Planning 090313 LP Neighbourhood Plan.Town Councillor, Jill Long, with a copy of the draft for the new Neighbourhood Plan for Littlehampton. Pictured by the old housing officers. Littlehampton.

The 44-page document sets out a blueprint for future growth and, for the first time, gives the town more of a say over its own destiny.

A four-week consultation began this week, as the plan entered a significant new phase of its journey towards becoming a formal document, including legally-binding sections restricting housebuilding figures and sites.

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It has been prepared by the town council, but town councillor Jill Long, planning and transportation committee chairman, said: “This is the community’s plan, not ours.”

It has taken 18 months to reach this stage, with views contributed by the public helping to shape the plan, and a welter of evidence gathered by the town council to shape its policies.

At the heart of the plan is the Fitzalan Corridor, where the town council is concentrating the sites for 210 homes over which it has a say between now and 2028. The corridor will also provide the town with a much-improved road link, carrying on northwards towards the proposed Lyminster bypass.

However, the plan will not affect large-scale housing schemes such as Courtwick and North Littlehampton, or the prospect of a huge development of 1,000 homes on the West Bank of the River Arun, which is expected to be included in Arun’s local plan.

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Should the latter scheme go ahead, the neighbourhood plan calls for a new secondary school to be built, although not within the town’s boundaries.

Where the Fitzalan Corridor cuts across the A259, a site is proposed for the long-awaited new medical facility, including services which would have been provided at the community hospital.

Once the consultation ends on April 8, responses will be assessed and any amendments necessary will be made to the plan. The resulting final draft will go out for further consultation from early May, for six weeks, and that document and the responses to it will then go before an independent examiner.

If he accepts the plan, a referendum in December will give voters in the town the chance to say whether or not they support it.

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* FOUR special sessions are being held to give townspeople the chance to find out more about the draft Neighbourhood Plan for Littlehampton and to air their views.

There has already been extensive consultation on the plan over the past 18 months, with valuable feedback helping to shape the latest version, as it comes towards the end of the process.

The public events, all next week, are on Tuesday (March 19, from 3-7pm, at Wick Hall, Wick Street, Wick; on Wednesday and Thursday, both from 3-7pm, and both at the New Millennium Chamber, the Manor House, Church Street, Littlehampton; and on Saturday, from 10am-2pm, again at the New Millennium Chamber.

Public consultation on the draft plan began on Monday this week and continues until April 8.

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During that time, comments can be made by post to the Town Clerk, Littlehampton Town Council, Manor House, Church Street, Littlehampton BN17 5EW, or by email to the clerk at [email protected]

A brief summary leaflet is being delivered to homes across the town, and the full document can be viewed at the town council’s reception at the Manor House, at Littlehampton Library, Fitzalan Road, at Wick Information Centre, Wick Street, Wick, or online at www.littlehampton-tc.gov.uk/neighbourhoodplan

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