Face the facts

1) The indigenous population of Arun is falling and indigenous residents will need 1,200 to 2,400 fewer houses than currently exist in Arun, not 8,000 more.

2) The only driver of population growth in Arun is net in-migration but that has been steadily reducing over the last ten years.

3) The only sustainable justification for a council to encourage in-migration is to fill job vacancies, but Arun has lost over 5,000 jobs since 2003 and has almost 4,000 unemployed at the moment.

4) Building houses will not create jobs in Arun. Over the last 20 years, 11,500 new houses have been built in Arun, but the number of jobs in the district has decreased by 5,000 in the last ten years.

5) 8,000 new houses will bring at least 8,000 more workers into Arun who will not find employment in the district and will take the number out-commuting every day to 30,000.

6) The real reason Arun wants to build more houses than the local population needs is to support its infrastructure plan and to support the council’s own future income. Such justifications are not permitted by the Government’s new planning regulations, however, so the council has massaged the housing ‘need’ figures to exactly match those previously imposed by the Labour Government.

7) Arun really needs improved drainage and sewerage, more school places, better public transport, improved education programmes and improved healthcare facilities, but the council wants to spend almost £100m on bypasses for level crossings at Woodgate and Wick, on roads that the highway authority has designated ‘non-strategic’.

8) Let me see if I understand the implications of the plan for Eastergate... Arun wants to concrete over 80 hectares of prime farmland, build a new town, spend at least £50m and ruin three villages because Network Rail does not want to pay for automated operation of a level crossing to reduce barrier down times on an A road! A prime example of sustainable development – Arun style!

If the above came from a script for Yes, Prime Minister we would all be shedding tears of laughter, but as it comes from the pages of the proposed Arun District local plan, it is no laughing matter.

The proposed local plan is planning nonsense and will be disastrous for the future sustainability of the district.

Gordon Bell

Eastergate Lane

Eastergate