Shock at ‘secret’ talks on 600 new homes in Angmering

Save Angmering Village supporters demonstrate outside Arun Civic Centre

An e-mail from an Arun District Council planning officer, leaked to the Save Angmering Village (SAV) group, invites developers, Angering’s three Arun councillors, the parish council and others to a meeting in August to discuss ‘the delivery of a comprehensive development, infrastructure provision and potential financial contributions’.

The email was sent on Thursday (June 20), just three weeks after a full meeting of Arun councillors agreed to put on ice major housing allocations, including the one for Angmering, until a review is completed of the evidence which will decide how many houses need to be built in Arun up to 2029.

SAV co-founder Sue Ware admitted she was shocked to read the contents of the email after a hard copy of it was pushed through her letter box, anonymously.

“How can they dump so many houses on us in one go, right at the beginning of this 16-year local plan? It goes against everything the councillors decided at the full council meeting.

“They wanted the lower housing figures for the first six years and voted against an amendment by Labour councillor Roger Nash to keep Angmering’s housing allocation in the plan.

“The full council has done one thing and officers seem to be doing something else. Is this a case of the tail wagging the dog? Who is really in charge at Arun, the councillors or the officers?”

She accused the officers of acting in secret, ‘behind closed doors’, adding: “It doesn’t look good at all.”

Cllr Ricky Bower, Arun’s cabinet member for planning, admitted that Arun was faced with the dilemma of currently having no local plan, while the study into the evidence for future housing needs in the district was underway.

“One can say this is a case of Arun being exposed to developers coming in all over the district with applications while we have no local plan, and having their proposals considered in the light of the National Planning Policy Framework, which is much more in favour of development than our plan would be.”

Cllr Bower thought a planning application for land at Roundstone Lane, including Worthing Rugby Club, was ‘imminent’, and so it was vital that talks were held with developers over possible contributions for infrastructure now, although that did not in any way imply approval of any application.