Protect parish

I agree each parish affected by the Chichester District’s Development Plan should draw up its own Neighbourhood Plan. But I think it is much more important the wider issue of the A27 should be paramount not only in the thinking of the council but in the representations of the communities due to be affected by the building of up to 5,000 new houses.

That it is not to say that other issues like jobs, schools and the basics like sewage and wastewater treatment should be ignored, but without improvements to the principal road in the area and the links to it, any large scale development will simply create chaos and destroy the benefits deemed likely to accrue from the new homes.

The villages to the south of Chichester, which are those most affected by the existing congestion on the A27, should collaborate to come up with a proposal to be presented to CDC, WSCC and the Highways Agency designed to ensure that this vital aspect is in the forefront of the planners’ minds.

To that end might I suggest the setting up of a working group representing all communities likely to be affected to coordinate such a presentation and to lobby forcefully on this issue?

We owe it to the future residents of our villages – I suspect the time taken to build the proposed new houses will see many of us out! – to ensure that the menace of the A27 is eliminated or at least contained.

Richard Davies

Chestnut Walk

Tangmere