Hundreds pack Ford Eco-Town protest meeting

About 250 residents of Ford, Yapton, Climping, Walberton, Barnham, Arundel and neighbouring towns and villags packed Yapton and Ford Village Hall to express their continuing opposition to the Eco-Town proposals.

The meeting was called by pressure group Communities Against Ford Eco-Town(CAFE) to give an update on the campaign and to hear of recent developments in the Government's Eco-Town programme.

CAFE chairman Terry Knott and vice-chairman Vicky Newman urged residents to respond to the Government's latest round of public consultation, which ends on 19 February.

MPs Nick Herbert (Arundel and South Downs) and Nick Gibb (Bognor Regis and Littlehampton) renewed their attacks on the Government for including Ford in its short list of possible Eco-Towns.

"Wrong place"

Mr Herbert said he believed that the Government would substantially reduce the number of Eco-Town projects, and that Ford should not be on the final list.

He added: "In any objective assessment, because of all the issues raised tonight '“ the lack of infrastructure, the A27 problem, the fanciful ideas about a waste treatment plant that have already been dismissed by the county council, and expecting half the people in an Eco-Town to have no cars '“ Ford is the wrong place. I believe that the strength of these arguments will win the day, provided that we maintain pressure."

Mr Gibb said that although there was a shortage of affordable housing in Arun district, Ford was the wrong place to build an Eco-Town.

"Arun District Council has spent two years identifying sites where new houses are to be built. They looked at this area at Ford, and they've had consultants hired to examine the feasibility of putting some of the housing in this area and they have rejected it on a whole range of grounds. It's not a suitable place."

Any decisions on housing, he stressed, should be taken by local councillors and not by central Government.

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