Decision delayed over North Bersted homes

The application for the 2,000 homes in the first stage of the Bognor Regis Eco-Quarter will not be decided by councillors until late November.

This will be almost 18 months after the Church Commissioners submitted their controversial proposals and their outcome.

Arun District Council has decided to push back the crucial meeting about the fate of the eco-quarter from the original expectation of earlier this year because of the sheer size of the proposals.

They are believed to be unparalleled since the local authority was formed in 1974.

Keith Wheway, a senior planning officer at the council, said: "It is very rare it takes almost a year and a half to determine a single application.

"But then we don't get applications of this size every day of the week.

"This is possibly one of the biggest planning applications the council has ever dealt with.

"The eco-quarter is much bigger than even the site six plans for 1,350 homes.

"There are still a lot of major concerns which the council's officers have regarding this scheme from a technical point of view regardless of the policy side of things.

"We are trying to resolve them with the applicant. They concern most of the scheme in areas such as highways, employment, residential and landscaping and open space."

He said the Church Commissioners were likely to be submitting amendments to their original application in the coming months in response to the talks which had been held between their planning experts and Arun's officers.

The commissioners have been criticised for putting forward the proposals '“ which are expected to eventually increase to 2,500 homes in all '“ on farmland at a time when the Archbishop of Canterbury, their chairman, is encouraging Britons to grow their own food.

The eco-town's site is north-west of Chalcraft Lane bounded by Lower Bognor Road and Chichester Road. Protests about the intended development have encompassed North Bersted and Aldwick residents.

The scale of the proposals is shown by the fact they will also include 2,400sq m of shops, 800sq m of drinking establishments, 19,700sq m of research and development space for businesses, 9,750sq m of offices and 3.900sq m for storage.

These are expected to generate some 1,340 full-time jobs.

Land will also be put by for a school and community uses.

Building work was intended to begin in 2013.

Bersted parish councillor Ann Smee said the current bottlenecks along Chichester Road caused by the site six access works showed the stupidity of building even more homes in the area.

"Our roads around here are in gridlock as it is," she said.

"We can't take any more houses. This issue is a no-brainer, it

really is."

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