Councillors told to ‘stop being pedantic’ on Chichester industrial estate changes

The district council approved its own plans to demolish and rebuild St James Industrial Estate in 2020.

Since then, a number of changes have been approved, including the reduction of the overall height of the set-up and the division of one large building into ten smaller units.

During a meeting of the planning committee on Wednesday (February 2), further – relatively minor – changes were discussed.

They were: the removal of entrance canopies and 30cm brick plinths from five of the blocks, for vertical cladding on those blocks to run from top to bottom, and for brick piers to be removed from the boundary wall allowing railings to run along the length.

For almost an hour, councillors raised concerns about whether the alterations represented a non-material – minor – change, the need for the canopies, the look of the cladding and whether hedges could be planted along the wall.

The lengthy discussion prompted Gordon McAra (Ind, Midhurst) to call on his fellow councillors to ‘get a grip’ and ‘stop being pedantic’.

He added: “It never ceases to amaze me how this committee can create a major storm in a very small teacup.

“Listening to the debate, I think we’re losing touch with reality.

“This is an industrial estate – has always been an industrial estate.

“If I was [an employer], I wouldn’t really get too wound up about whether my cladding went vertically or horizontally.”

The committee eventually delegated the issue to officers for further discussions with the ward members, who could then ‘red card’ it – bring it back to the committee – if an acceptable result wasn’t reached.

Responding to Mr McAra’s words, Bill Brisbane (Lib Dem, Chichester East) pointed out that the industrial estate had always been enclosed and the character and appearance when viewed from the north would be changed.

He added: “This is not a storm in a teacup debate we’ve been having.

“This would cause quite an uproar if a private developer was presenting stuff like this.

“This is a council-led development and it should be foremost in their minds to liaise properly with residents on the sensitive design of this issue.

“That clearly hasn’t happened and it’s a shame.”

To view the application in full, log on to publicaccess.chichester.gov.uk and search for 22/00020/NMA.