Plans for homes at former Birdham nursery sites are refused

The application for land at Bellfield Nurseries, Kelly’s Nurseries and Koolbergen, in Bell Lane, was turned down during a meeting of the planning committee on Wednesday (December 8).

The committee deferred the application in September, asking for more information from Southern Water and National Highways.

At the time, planning officers had recommended it for approval – but, in the two months since then, the council’s planning landscape changed.

It can now prove that it has the required five-year housing land supply, so has more wiggle room when it comes to deciding which developments it has to accept.

As such, the officers changed their recommendation to ‘refuse’ on the grounds that the site is in the countryside – outside the settlement boundary for Birdham  – it would result in the loss of horticultural lands, and doesn’t make adequate provision for affordable housing.

After a lengthy discussion, the committee also added its concerns about waste water/sewage problems in the area.

In its objection to the council, Birdham Parish Council included a comment from a resident, which said: “Our sewage system backs up and things such as toilets, sinks and showers do not drain.

“In many cases boilers stop working as the condensate system is plumbed into the mains drainage and because of the backup, the boilers experience back pressure and shut down, leaving residents with no heating.”

In a report to the committee, a spokesman for Southern Water said: “We can confirm that tankers are still required for Birdham during wet weather due to the waste water pumping station being overwhelmed by excess flows entering the network.”

Had the plans been approved, the three-hectare site would have included 21 affordable homes, 700sqm of employment space and a shop – though questions had previously been asked about the viability of the latter given how few customers it was likely to serve.

This was not the first time development of the site had been proposed.

A similar application for 77 homes was refused by the planning committee in 2017 and then dismissed when that decision was appealed.

And in 2014, an application for 81 homes was refused.

More than 100 objections to the latest plans were received, with concerns including over-development, harm to the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty as well as Chichester Harbour, flooding, the impact on the A27 and the stress placed on the sewage system.

To view the application in full, log on to publicaccess.chichester.gov.uk and search for 20/02066/OUT.