VOTE: Plans for 2,500 homes in North Bersted look doomed

The 2,500-home eco-quarter project appears increasingly unlikely to be built. It has been overtaken by changes in the new government's planning system.

Ann Smee, a founder of the Clued Up protest group, said: "We can confidently say the cards are stacking up against the eco-quarter.

"We are all hoping once Arun District Council gets its new

five-year housing supply agreed, it will not be necessary to build the eco-quarter.

"There will be absolutely no reason to go ahead with it. The new government is changing the planning system a lot at the moment.

"As things stand, the eco-quarter would be in a strategic gap and on a greenfield site. All these things are counting against it. I would think that's why the applicants are not pushing it.

"Myself and all the other protesters would be absolutely delighted if the scheme was abandoned."

A planning application from the Church Commissioners is still undecided by Arun District Council 15 months after it was submitted.

It is unlikely to be considered for a long time. Karl Roberts, the council's assistant director of planning services and housing strategy, said the reasoning behind the scheme no longer existed.

"We are in a very fluid situation as regards the national planning system," he said.

"We are not intending to determine that planning application any time soon.

"The applicant has the right to ask us to determine it and we will do so, but we will have to consider it against the planning criteria which are in use at that time.

"A lot of the rationale from which the application was formed '“ the regional planning strategy '“ has removed. So we are not looking to determine that application in the immediate future."

Scale of the proposals is shown by the fact they will include 2,400sq m of shops, 800sq m of drinking establishments, 19,700sq m of research and development space for businesses, 9,750sq m of offices and 3.900sq m for storage. These are expected to generate 1,340 full-time jobs.

A major setback in the case for the eco-quarter, destined for 375 acres between Chalcraft Lane and Lower Bognor Road, came last week when Arun's councillors drastically lowered the number of homes needing to be built in the district each year.

They set the annual figure at 465 dwellings or 2,325 for the next five years without comment. These can already be met by planning approvals yet to be actioned by developers. This removes the need for further large-scale schemes.

The annual figure is about a fifth less than the 565 homes a year which the council had been obliged to provide over 20 years under the previous regional housing targets imposed by the former government.

The lower figure is a temporary one until councillors can consult residents about the amount of housing they would like to see.

Also likely to play an important role in the consultation is the need for more employment sites to provide much-needed jobs for the area. "I am writing a report to councillors about how they might want to move to a permanent housing figure," said Mr Roberts.

"The council needs to work out how to engage with the local community in terms of setting the permanent figure, taking on board the idea of localism and an approach dictated by local people rather than one imposed by the government."

Comprehensive methods of finding out people's views were needed from the traditional to the digital, he said.

Cllr Ricky Bower, who is in charge of Arun's planning services, told councillors he expected the consultation to take place in late 2010 or early 2011.