Rustington Golf Centre housing development: 'It will be an isolated community'

A public inquiry – hearing the appeal from developers wanting to build 170 homes on the pitch and putt course – began today (Tuesday, September 6) at 10am.

It comes after Arun District Council rejected plans for 191 new homes on a golf course in Rustington. The decision was backed by MP Andrew Griffith after more than 300 residents submitted objections to the plans.

Barratt David Wilson (BDW) Homes resubmitted plans to build on the golf course – but with fewer homes than the first time around.

Residents were invited to ‘bring some placards, costumes and noise’ to mark the start of the eight-day event by showing the planning inspector the ‘strength of feeling against the proposal’.

Protesters, including representatives from Angmering Parish Council, met outside Manor House in Littlehampton. They were joined by district councillor, Andy Cooper.

Nikki Hamilton-Street, parish council chairman, read out a statement.

She said: “This development clearly will have no safe link to the parish of Angmering it sits in, Rustington to the south, East Preston to the east or Littlehampton to the West.

"It will therefore be an isolated community, creating isolation for the individuals that live there, affecting their physical and mental health, as well as not identifying with any one of the existing communities from which to gain support, therefore creating a greater reliance on their cars to gain this support.”

What is being proposed?

Plans include planting, 396 parking spaces, 253 cycle spaces, open space, and a new access road from Golfers Lane.

A range of detached, semi-detached, and terrace housing up to two and a half storeys in height are shown on the plans.

A new cycleway to connect to the existing one along the A259 and a pedestrian crossing at the roundabout to the south east of the site are also proposed.

Of the new homes, 50 (or 30 per cent) would be ‘affordable’.

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

The developers argue 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’.

They added that it will be suitable for older people and people with disabilities as well as delivering a ‘beautiful and high-quality residential environment.

Highways, cycle and pedestrian improvements were also stated as reasons to approve the application, to ensure ‘greater connectivity to the retained golf centre’ for the ‘wider existing community’.

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‘We all have to cope with the congestion, noise and air quality’

Former Littlehampton town councillor Derrick Chester, who organised the event, said councillors and members of the public made a ‘visual protest’, spelling out the reasons why the planning inspector should uphold the district council’s refusal.

Among the reasons given were; the setting, landscape and connectivity of the site; the importance of the leisure and sporting facilities and the ‘additional pressure on already over stretched infrastructure’. They said it would also undermine the local and neighbourhood plan process.

Ed Miller is the secretary of the Ferring Conservation Group and convenor of the Protect Our Gaps Alliance – which ‘embraces conservation, amenity and residents associations’ from Rustington along the coast to Worthing.

He plans to issue a statement during the eight-day appeal process.

It reads: “We all have a stake in this appeal because we all value the green gaps between settlements, we all enjoy the setting of Highdown and the National Park.

"We all have members who use the pitch and putt and foot golf course at the golf centre and we all have to cope with the congestion, noise and air quality of the increasing amount of traffic on the A259.

"And over 300 residents sent in objections to the planning applications.”

Ed said that, in the last five years, ‘hundreds of new houses’ have ben built on our green fields, adding: “There are permissions extant for many more and applications and proposals for even more along this road.

“Where these housing estates are part of the council’s local plan, as in much of Angmering, we accept them as being delivered by local democracy.

"What we do not accept are housing applications that are put forward in defiance of our local and neighbourhood plans.

"We know that Arun has not been able to provide a five year supply of housing land – and that for this reason it has to demonstrate that the adverse effect of allowing the development is significantly more damaging than the positive effect.

"Every time a development which is contrary to the local plan and neighbourhood plan is allowed on appeal – because of a Government-imposed target – we all feel cheated.

"Please help restore our faith in local democracy and dismiss this appeal.”

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