Yapton villagers turn up in force to halt homes

At least 30 people filled the public gallery in Bognor Regis Town Hall's council chamber on Tuesday as a public inquiry got underway.

The hearing concerns an appeal by Gladedale Ltd to build 59 two, three and four-bedroom houses on Yapton Industrial Estate in Bilsham Road.

The appeal was lodged after Arun District Council rejected the proposals last year.

It is due to continue today and tomorrow at Yapton Village Hall.

Yapton Parish Council planning committee chairman Andrew Faulkner told the government's inquiry inspector Jill Kingaby the extra traffic generated by the intended housing would add to the highway safety problems around the Comet Corner junction with the A259 to the south.

The proposed scheme would represent an increase of just over 16 per cent on the number of dwellings east of Bilsham Road.

"The site, on the extremity of the village, was approved some years ago for development as a small industrial site, not for residential development," he commented.

"It is a relatively small site which is largely undeveloped '“ 75 per cent is considered to be greenfield land.

"The site retains its rural character and the high- density proposal to build 59 houses within the site would be out of keeping in this neighbourhood."

Arun's conservation and design manager, Brian Banister, stated the planned development was over-intense, too regimented in layout and design, and more like an urban infill scheme than a village extension.

"As such, it will materially detract from the semi-rural character of the appeal site and the rural character of the wider area," he commented.

The business premises on the estate were only single-storey and its open grassed areas made an important contribution to that character.

The extensive number of residential units would cause a cramped layout, he said. This was reflected in the extensive areas of car parking which would give rise to streets dominated by parked cars and hard surfacing.

The situation was compounded by a regimental layout with buildings up to 2.5 storeys high out of keeping with the surroundings and comparable to housing estates anywhere.

But Caroline Dawson, for Gladedale, said using the site was in line with national planning policies to reuse previously developed land.

"Yapton as a settlement is accepted by the planning authority as a suitable location for new housing and a number of consents have been recently approved.

"It is, therefore, a sustainable settlement capable of supporting an amount of new housing.

"In response to the boundary's purpose in distinguishing the built-up area from the countryside, it is my opinion that the appeal site operates more as part of Yapton than as an element of the surrounding open countryside.

"It is an extremely well contained site which sits behind the existing development on Bilsham Road and which has no visual or functional links with the surrounding countryside.

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'The fact the site has operated as an industrial estate over many years reinforces my opinion that it has a closer relationship with the village than the surrounding countryside.

'For these reasons, I am confident that the proposed redevelopment of the appeal site would not compromise the purpose of the council's policies for the sustainable location of development and the protection of the countryside,' she stated.

After the inquiry ends, Ms Kingaby will publish her decision in the coming months.