Councillor calls for committee to debate housing plan

Worthing Homes’s application to Arun District Council for 18 shared ownership dwellings, with access, landscaping and associated works, at Stanhorn Grove has received more than 40 letters of objection.

The scheme, planned to sit within the current Barratt/ David Wilson development, includes 39 parking spaces.

A design and access statement submitted with the application states the scheme ‘aims to provide much needed housing with a mix of house types with all being shared ownership properties’ and that the outcomes of technical assessments ‘demonstrate that the site has no technical constraints’.

However, residents have said it would not be in keeping with current properties and have also raised concerns about flooding and drainage, the impact of extra traffic on road safety and parking, loss of privacy and the effect on wildlife.

It is also argued that the quota for affordable housing has already been met.

In one letter, a resident said: “Wellers Close will become a large soak away.”

Another said: “I am outraged and disappointed that these changes are being proposed to the open space – a strong selling and reselling point for me and others.”

One asked: “Why must every tiny scrap of land be built on?”

A fourth said: “This land needs to be preserved as an oasis of nature and tranquility and not given over to yet more housing.”

District councillor for Felpham East Paul English has formally requested that Arun’s development control committee debate the plan ‘due to the number of objections and the deep concern of residents’.

In his letter of objection he detailed seven points of concern, including over the site’s waste and drainage facilities and that ‘more in-depth scrutiny’ is needed ‘to ensure there will be absolutely no chance of any risk of subsidence or flooding to any adjoining exisitng property’.

The deadline for a decision on the application (FP/171/18/PL) is October 4.