Glasshouses could make wayfor housing on Barnham site

A horticulture business wants to gain approval for 107 houses on the site of nine surplus glasshouses.

Epitair and Eric Wall Holdings have sought outline planning permission from Arun District Council for the scheme at Eric Wall Nursery in Lake Lane.

A statement by the companies’ planning agent, Pierre Dowsett, said 
the glasshouses dated from the 1950s 
and 1960s.

“The glasshouses on site are 
outdated and coming to the end of their usable life.

“Heating issues mean that they are less sustainable than more modern glasshouse structures, which have multiple spanned ridged roofs, are 
lower in profile and utilise modern thermal glass.”

The application proposes up to 107 dwellings with two, three and four bedroom units. One in three would be affordable housing.

The housing will be two storeys high with habitable accommodation in the roof space.

Its location about 500m east of the village centre, with its railway station, makes the site sustainable for development.

The south-west corner of the new estate will be given over to allotments in answer to calls from the public and the parish council’s ongoing quest for the plots, said Mr Dowsett.

There will also be two formal recreational spaces and a large amount of informal space.

A footway which links Lake Lane to the south west of the housing will provide a route for pedestrians who live to the north to overcome the safety fears caused by the lack of a path along part of Lake Lane. An agreement which routes HGVs leaving the site in an easterly direction will remain, Mr Dowsett explained.

The glasshouses have become redundant after a planning approval in 2010 for a new glasshouse on the south of the site.