Protest after Rustington Golf Centre development allowed on appeal: 'This rotten system needs radical reform'

Barratt David Wilson Homes now has permission to develop part of Rustington Golf Centre in Golfers Lane.

Arun District Council refused the proposals last November but the developer appealed to the Planning Inspectorate and won.

Ed Miller, convenor of the Protect our Gaps Alliance, was among those left ‘very disappointed’ by the decision. He said: “Once again, open green space has been sacrificed to the numbers game in which Arun District Council’s inability to meet the impossible housing targets laid down by the Government is used to justify a decision for building a housing estate on green fields.

‘This decision is all the more disappointing because it removes a well-used leisure facility, and throws more traffic onto the A259 – which is already severely overloaded. Once again, the county council decided there was no problem, either for traffic congestion or for road safety."

Mr Miller said local amenity groups ‘fought hard against this application’, with more than 300 residents sending in objections.

“The parish councils also objected and Arun District Council refused permission but local democracy seems to count for nothing,” he added. “This rotten system needs radical reform so that planning really is the ‘bottom -up’ process we were promised and not the top-down process that imposes this sort of decision on our local community.”

The development is set to include one-bedroom apartments and a range of semi-detached, detached, and terraced homes with two to four bedrooms. Of these, 57 will be affordable.

Although the par 3 course would be lost, the par 70 course, 18-hole adventure golf course, café, and other features would remain.

A new access T-junction will be built and minor improvement works are planned to the Golfers Lane arm of Mill Lane roundabout.

Former Littlehampton town councillor Derrick Chester organised a fresh protest on Monday (October 31). He took social media to advertise the event, stating: “It's time to demonstrate more forcibly this isn't acceptable.”

He said developers are ‘destroying our best assets’, adding: “It is an important local leisure facility, with green open space and it is right next to the very busy A259. There will be no improved pedestrian or crossing facilities by this roundabout.

"It is extending the boundary of Rustington over the A259 and eventually developers will build all the way down to Ferring if we are not careful.

"We are here to protest about it. We have got an uphill battle to stop it but we’ve shown willing in wet weather this afternoon to give it a go.”

As part of the application, a total of 477 parking spaces are proposed, alongside 39 garages, 191 cycle spaces, electric vehicle parking, and public open space. A new cycleway will connect to the existing one further east, along the A259.

The developer suggested that the plans will be ‘major contribution’ to the delivery of new homes required in the district, adding that it will be ‘affordable housing’ in a ‘high-quality setting’.

But council planning officers argued that the development would ‘effectively introduce a suburban housing estate into the countryside’.

Plans were met with widespread objection from more than 300 residents and Arundel and South Downs MP Andrew Griffith, who spoke at the appeal public inquiry. Click here to read more.

Mr Miller said there are ‘more battles to come’ on sites along the A259.

"We are waiting for Arun’s decision on Lansdowne Nursery, and planning applications at Highdown Vineyard and in the fields opposite Sainsbury’s,” he said. “We are not going to give up the fight to save our gaps another green fields.”