Ford not approved for housing plans

They have now declared victory in the fight to prevent a 5,000 home eco-town being built there.

The site has not been included in the four eco-towns named by the government for immediate development. Despite initial fears that Ford could be included in a second wave of eco-towns,campaigners have been told that the government views it, along with two other sites, as not having demonstrated enough potential to be an eco-town.

Now attention has turned to Arun District Council's Options for Growth policies and campaigning group CAFE is to keep a watching brief on the site proposed for the eco-own to ensure there is no large-scale development there.

Nick Gibb MP for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton said: "It is a victory for the people of Yapton, Ford and Climping that this absurd and damaging plan to build 5,000 houses on pristine Sussex countryside will not go ahead.

"The marches and petitions have been successful. We now need to be ever vigilant that Government will foist on us more houses in other parts of the district. Decisions over house building should be taken locally by local councillors and local people not by mandarins and ministers in Whitehall."