Groups want development 'come hell or high water'

The claim came from Derek Waller from Communities Against Ford Eco-Town last Tuesday on the first of a six-day public inquiry into the plans for an eco-town at Ford Airfield and the surrounding area.

He said that in a Barton Willmore document submitted to the county council in July 2000 it talked of 10,000 homes and 25,000 people.

The Ford Airfield Vision Group and the Ford Enterprise Hub say the development will be for 5,000 homes.

But Mr Waller drew the select committee's attention to the Vision Group's current document from August last year which states: "In the longer term the potential exists for further development to meet future development requirements."

Arundel and South Downs MP Nick Herbert also warned that developers envisaged a far greater scale of development at Ford than the 5,000 eco-town houses claimed.

He also strongly attacked 'thoroughly misleading' claims that the development is on brownfield land.

For full story see West Sussex Gazette June 4