Masterplan for 1,500-home Ford development endorsed

The masterplan sets out the development principles for the 112 hectare site, which was allocated in the Local Plan to take 1,500 homes along with a community hub, employment space and a school.

Having been given the nod by the district council’s development control committee – by seven votes to five with two abstentions – outline planning applications for the site can now be considered.

While praising the recent public consultation into the masterplan, a number of councillors had concerns.

Land to the north-west of the site has been identified as the best spot for a secondary school – and without it, the masterplan would have to be revised.

But Jacky Pendleton (Con, Middleton-on-sea) told the meeting that nothing had been agreed and there was ‘real contention’ between the landowner and West Sussex County Council.

Mrs Pendleton acknowledged that the concept of the masterplan was ‘brilliant’ but added: “Why would we be pushing this through on the nod when a key part of it is actually really, really at risk?”

The other major concern raised was that of traffic, both now and in the future.

The development site sits between the A259 and the A27 and Richard Bower (Con, East Preston) said he did not believe the plan did enough to address connectivity issues between the two.

He said: “This 1,500 properties is going to deliver an awful lot of traffic going north.

“To accommodate it within the existing road structure without providing a bridge across the railway line I think is going to give us some considerable difficulty in the long term.”

Mrs Pendleton agreed, adding: “This masterplan has not addressed the highways implications in this area and it seeks to just push them to one side and hope for the best.”

Stressing that she was not asking for the masterplan to provide things such as a railway bridge and a new road, she asked for it to be looked at again to see if space could be allowed for these things in the future.

She added: “If we don’t provide now in terms of space then we can’t do it later on.”

There was support from Hugh Coster (Ind, Aldwick East), who said: “We have to be forward thinking in this.

“We are looking ahead to the problems that are going to exist in the future and we must make allowances for them.”

However, Neil Crowther, group head of planning, told the meeting there were no policy requirements and no evidence within the Local Plan that such road linkages were needed in the area.

He added: “The bridge over the railway line is something that we’re trying to push towards but is not required by the plan policy for this allocation.

“We are trying to secure contributions towards it. How far we get with that we just don’t know.”

The final word, though, went to John Charles (Con, Barnham).

He said: “It’s a good masterplan and if we start mucking about with it now for something that may happen or something we would like, it’s going to do more harm than good.”