Planning inquiry date for 77 Birdham homes

A planning inquiry to decide a contentious and long-running bid to build 77 new homes in Birdham will be held later this month.
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The four-day hearing starts on March 20 at the Council House, North Street, Chichester at 10am.

Mr and Mrs Paul Knappett’s application for the homes, retail and open space on the Koolbergen, Kelly’s and Bellfield nurseries site in Bell Lane was rejected by Chichester District Council’s planners in February 2017 but they appealed.

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They had an application for more than 80 homes at the sites refused in 2015, and say the new homes are needed and that new shop facilities would provide new employment opportunity.

The application received a number of objections from residents as well as Earnley, West Wittering and Birdham parish councils.

Birdham councillors believe it would ‘impose a scale of urbanization that would destroy the character of the village’. The parish has already seen around double the homes it is allocated for in CDC’s Local Plan.

Members of the public can attend and, at the inspectorate’s discretion, may be permitted to speak.