Chichester ‘can’t impose moratorium on large housing developments’

Claims Chichester District Council is hiding the difficulties it is facing with its local plan are ‘absolutely not true’, its deputy leader said.

Recently there have been calls for a moratorium on all new large housing developments as well as a pause to the local plan process.

As the current plan is out of date and the review is behind schedule, developers are starting to submit speculative applications.

Susan Taylor, deputy leader and cabinet member for planning at CDC, said the local plan has continued to be one of their top priorities even through the pandemic.

She added: “Some people have said that we are hiding the difficulties we are facing with the plan, but this is absolutely not true.

“It’s no secret that planning is a complex area. What our officers have been doing is making sure that we have the evidence to back up our investigations.

“This is absolutely critical because when the local plan review is submitted to the planning inspector to be considered, we have to show that we have done everything we can to consider all of the available options.

“If our evidence shows that certain things are not possible, as long as we have the evidence, the Inspector should take this into consideration when reviewing the targets that we have been set by Government.”

Two of the areas the council is currently focusing on are roads and waste water.

The council has identified a series of improvements to the A27 junctions including a link road from the Fishbourne roundabout, with much of this work published in December 2018.

Mrs Taylor said: “Highways England has told us that the options we are suggesting would meet the additional pressure from future housing. West Sussex County Council has also agreed that the link road would be necessary if we are to meet the level of growth the government expects. Our partners have agreed that improvements are needed while we wait for a long term decision from the Government on the A27.”

Further work, to assess whether there is any alternative option, is currently being finalised and the council’s intention is that it will be on its website in a matter of weeks.

Meanwhile Southern Water has agreed to work with the council jointly on identifying the improvements that need to be made.

Mrs Taylor said: “Waste water has been an ongoing problem for the south of the district and it is something that the council has been lobbying Southern Water about for some time. However, this has now led to the council raising an official complaint with the Water Services Regulation Authority, Ofwat, which oversees all waste water providers and is able to hold them to account.

“It seems the complaint that we made to Ofwat has made a difference. We have recently been holding constructive meetings with Southern Water and the Environment Agency to look at what can be achieved.”

She said they could not impose a moratorium on all new large housing applications as developers have the right to submit plans, which must be determined within agreed timescales and if not they would just be taken to appeal.

She also believes the district council has put measures in place to protect the Chichester local plan area from ‘inappropriate speculative development’.

A review of the timetable for completing the local plan review will be considered by the council ‘shortly’.

Mrs Taylor highlighted the council’s interim policy housing statement, which considers factors such as protection of strategic wildlife corridors and Environment Agency advice on flooding.

She felt their approach gave them the ‘best possible position to manage planning applications until the local plan review can be adopted’.

She added: “What is vital is that we continue to work with our partners and communities to get the very best outcome for our district and I believe that we can achieve this. We will shortly be issuing a regular newsletter, making sure that people are aware of the work that is happening and highlighting the opportunities for people to have their say. People can sign up to this by emailing their details to [email protected].”