Meeting of Shripney residents to have their say on flooding

The get-together will take place at 7pm on Tuesday (August 21) at the Robin Hood pub on the A29 Shripney Road.

It follows a meeting there last month and the formation of the Shripney Community Flood Action Group after the flooding in mid-June.

Some 12 residents also attended Bersted Parish Council’s meeting on Tuesday.

Peter Allsopp, of Shripney Lane, told the councillors the neighbourhood plan they were overseeing was of serious concern to the homeowners.

“The plan is giving concern to a lot of people, particularly in the North Bersted and Shripney area for more than one reason,” he said.

“Flooding is possibly the main topic at the moment after the June floods.”

The proposals by Arun District Council for 2,000 homes just to the north at Woodgate would also affect Shripney, he said.

This would cause the gap between the settlements to narrow considerably and potentially increase the risk of flooding around Shripney.

He said: “I can’t see any mention of this in the Bersted plan.

“The view of many people of Shripney is that we should think about doing something about the drainage system rather than building more houses.

“It’s near impossible to build lots of houses without causing problems elsewhere.”

Volunteer and North Bersted resident Tom Frears is leading the work on the Bersted neighbouring plan.

It would seek to include Arun’s plans for 50 houses across Bersted between 2013-2028.

“That’s not many houses a year and we should have little difficulty in finding locations for these houses,” he said.

He said commercial development was also proposed at the Salt Box, Oldlands Farm and Rowans Park sites along Shripney Road.

Parish council chairman Cllr Brian Kemp said it would work with the flood action group. The parish council was also present at MP Nick Gibb’s meetings to find answers to the flooding.