Resumption of Arun Local Plan review supported

It sets out a vision for development across the district, including housing targets and which proposals are likely to gain approval – or be refused.

Arun District Council’s planning policy committee chose to pause a review of the plan in the autumn due to uncertainty over expected changes to the planning system, such as the Planning Bill and recent draft bill.

A pause was supported out of concern that expensive evidence preparation could become outdated under a revised planning system and that the council could be tying itself to undesirable housing targets set by government – targets that it has been unable to meet and which could soon be reviewed.

But planning officers recommended that the review continue in light of recent developments and this was agreed by the committee on Tuesday (June 7).

“We now consider the risks to plan making that we had last year no longer apply,” they said.

Conservative members abstained from the vote, arguing that reviewing the plan now could see increased housing targets that may not exist in future.

Chair Ricky Bower (Con, East Preston) said: “We have a local plan which was adopted five years ago so it is effectively up to date.

“It has a housing target which not many people on this council actually accept as a reasonable housing target, but we have to follow the rules.”

Council leader Shaun Gunner said reviewing the plan could now tie the council to the current system.

He asked: “What would this mean for additional houses over the next five years?”

Planning officers confirmed the council would be expected to deliver around 6,500 homes over a five year period – figures Mr Bower called ‘a fantasy’.

The Government’s draft Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill has signalled a move away from top-down housing targets – but on the proviso that councils must have an up to date Local Plan.

“You have to get a plan adopted in order to protect yourself against the planning by appeal process,” Neil Crowther, group head of planning, said.

“We’re in the same boat as we were when the Planning Bill was published – there’s no roadmap, there’s no dates, there’s no certainty.”

But opposition councillors were strongly in favour of continuing the review.

Isabel Thurston (Green, Barnham) said: “If we don’t start revising it within five years, we’ll have an out of date plan and it will not carry so much planning weight in determining applications.

“I think it’s absolutely imperative to do this work.”

She argued that the council could also build a requirement for more sustainable development into its plan sooner if it continues a review.

Hugh Coster (Ind. Aldwick East) also supported continuing the review.

He called holding off in order to wait for revised rules ‘conjecture and guesswork’, adding that he would not have voted for a pause in autumn if he hadn’t been convinced by Conservative members.

Martin Lury (LDem, Bersted) argued that another pause could be delaying the inevitable as the council was told to review its plan, and resolved to do so, in 2020.

“Pagham and Bersted didn’t want all their greenfields built upon but that’s exactly what this council has done,” he said.

“I think we ought to be increasing our recent evidence base and I do think we’re vulnerable to all sorts of things if we just stop now.”

But David Edwards (Con, Felpham East) is convinced that Housing Secretary Michael Gove, who he met at a recent fundraising dinner in Bognor Regis, is committed to changing the system and said reviewing now could be ‘disastrous’ for housing targets.

“He knows that there’s a problem and he knows what the fix is going to be,” he said.

“I was very encouraged to hear that things are going to change because he knows they have to.

“He also recognises that we are stuck between the sea and the Downs and there is only a finite amount of space for us to build housing on and therefore numbers need to be more realistic.”

After the meeting, main opposition leader James Walsh (LDem, Beach) expressed disappointment that the Conservatives abstained.

“When Lib Dems controlled the council last year we started a review with the aim of reducing the undeliverable targets,” he said.

“When the Tories grabbed back control of the council they immediately stopped the review, promising early government action to review the plan, which hasn’t materialised.

“Existing residents have said ‘enough is enough’, and we support that view with an urgent Local Plan review of the absurd imposed numbers, types of housing, the allocated sites, and infrastructure including sewage, roads, medical and schools.

“The Tories abdicated responsibility by abstaining, and it is the Lib Dems, Independents and Green showing real leadership.”

The review will now continue if approved by full council.

The results of the recorded vote to continue the review is below: Bower- abstain, Chapman- abstain, Coster- for, Edwards- abstain, Elkins-abstain, Goodheart- for, Hughes- abstain, Jones- for, Lury-for, Thurston-for, Yeates- for.

In the three years to March 2021, Arun DC delivered 1,872 homes but its target was to deliver 2,891 during that period period.

Its lack of a five-year housing land supply means that the district is vulnerable to speculative development, evident from the loss of an appeal over 200 homes in Barnham back in January.