Here’s why new Bosham homes and community orchard are recommended for approval

An application, from Grand Holdings, to build on the former Chas Wood Nurseries site in Main Road, is to be considered by the planning committee on Wednesday March 2.

The outline plans, submitted in July 2020, were originally for 19 homes along with public open space and a tennis court.

Since then, another seven homes have been added and the tennis court has become a community orchard.

If approved, the development will be made up of four one-bedroom, ten two-bedroom, eight three-bedroom and four four-bedroom homes.

Eight of them will be classed as affordable.

While planning officers have recommended the application be approved, the council has received 51 letters of objection.

Concerns included the overdevelopment of the site, the impact on air quality, concerns about who would manage the orchard and the increasing pressure on local waste water systems.

One said: “The increase in the numbers of houses for this application results in the site, and the houses within it, being packed in too tightly.

“The small garden sizes and absence of much green space is not appropriate for this rural area.”

An earlier application, to build ten homes on the site, was refused in 2018 with an appeal to planning inspectors dismissed in 2019.

But, in a report to the planning committee, officers felt the latest proposals would ‘help to increase the council’s housing supply’.

To view the application in full, log on to publicaccess.chichester.gov.uk and search for 20/01854/OUT.

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