Villagers' views over housing will be heard over housing plans

Scores of inhabitants of the villages have written to Arun District Council after its consultation deadline to oppose proposals for a development of up to 1,500 homes and a Westergate bypass.

The scheme was submitted by Hallam Land Management to the council on the last possible day for submissions '“ April 2 '“ about potential sites for thousands of homes.

This denied residents the chance to comment about them in contrast to those protesting against more homes on Chalcraft Lane and in Ford. They had proposals against which they could make their opposition plain.

Melissa Briggs, a district councillor for Barnham, said this left residents in her area at a disadvantage to those around the other options for development.

"My constituents had no chance of commenting on the Hallam Land Management proposal. The document was not in the public domain," she said.

She used the council's latest development framework sub-committee to express her residents' anger and to question the worth of the council's consultation exercise.

Council chief planning officer Karl Roberts explained how the comments would be handled.

"Every comment received up to now will be reported to the sub-committee in two batches," he said.

"One batch will be those received during the formal consultation period and the other will be of those received after the period and up to now. Everything received afterwards will be read so we understand what has been said but we can't keep on analysing and analysing them."

Sub-committee chairman Ricky Bower said: "We were consulting on land use policies and not anything specific tied to any particular company."

He added that developers could not be forced to hold public consultation. Cries of 'shameful' came from the public gallery of 11 public, mainly villagers, as he stated the council had no talks with Hallam about the submission of its proposals.

"Hallam submitted their proposals with no prior discussion with Arun. I make that quite clear so that everybody understands it and hears it," he stressed.

Housing opponents have documents which show Hallam was in contact with the council in June 2007 about developing land at Westergate and say Arun has misled the public about the matter.

Arun has denied any wrongdoing and said Hallam met the council towards the end of the consultation period just before its proposals were received.

*At least 3,293 comments about the development proposals around the district were made in 1,043 representations to the council.

The number is rising as the final submissions are being input.

What do you think? Click here to send a letter or leave a comment below.

Click here to go back to Chichester news

Click here to go back to Bognor Regis news

Click here to go back to Midhurst and Petworth news

To tell us where in the world you are reading this story click on the link below to add yourself to our readers' map.

MAP