Dealership’s expansion plans facing opposition

A CAR dealership in Ferring has applied for permission to increase its existing display area – but faces stiff opposition from a conservation group.
Leon O'Hara
Dealer Principal
Yeomans PeugeotLeon O'Hara
Dealer Principal
Yeomans Peugeot
Leon O'Hara Dealer Principal Yeomans Peugeot

The planning application, submitted to Arun District Council by Yeomans Peugeot dealership, in Littlehampton Road, includes the demolition of a bungalow to make way for a paved and lit forecourt.

Kevin Newitt, Yeomans group operations director, said: “This is not a get rich quick proposal from a fat-cat property developer.

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“Yeomans is a Worthing-based business which employs a considerable number of local people at the Ferring Peugeot dealership and provides a valuable service to local motorists.

“Our existing facility, built some 15 years ago, has simply outgrown itself. An opportunity exists to expand into the plot next door, currently a 1950s bungalow in a poor state of repair with an unloved garden fronting the main road, and doing so will secure the future for our business and the staff at this site for the next 20 years.”

The proposal allows for 25 additional car display spaces as well as more parking spaces for staff and customers, and a one-way traffic scheme to try to improve safety for cars entering and exiting the site.

Ferring Conservation Group, which successfully campaigned against an application by BMW dealership, Chandlers, to build a new showroom and garage on a greenfield site further along Littlehampton Road earlier this year, objects to the plan.

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Ed Miller, the group’s secretary, said: “The garage should never have been built there. It is right in front of Highdown Hill and is an eyesore. It is just the wrong development for that road, it still has a bit of semi-rural character but gradually that is being eroded by unsuitable developments. People need to wake up to what is going on.”

Part of the proposed plan involves the planting of a variety of trees and shrubs. The plan states that the proposed tree planting would enhance the existing site ecology and soften views of the proposed development from the neighbouring garden centre and the A259, which surround it.

Lighting will consist of energy-efficient LEDs with filters to reduce light pollution, and will only be switched on during opening hours.

The conservation group has three weeks in which to submit any objections.