Travellers' site battle hots up

A petition of more than 140 signatures has been collected from people living near the proposed site, at land between Hearnfield Road and Coomes Way, and more than 30 letters of objection have been lodged with Arun District Council.

When the plans were revealed by the Gazette on September 21, neighbours of the 6,300 square-metre site made it clear that they were wholeheartedly against it and one, Eveline Abbott, of Hearnfield Road, described it as "madness".

Speaking to the Gazette on Tuesday, one Hearnfield Road resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said: "It would be utterly devastating for the community here if the site was allowed to go ahead.

"Nobody wants it and the vast majority of people living here are elderly and vulnerable and they are scared about the prospect of travellers living there.

"I think it's a ridiculous to put in a travellers' site and it would be just as ridiculous to put a residential site in the middle of a travellers' community."

Steve Knott, a spokesman for the Surrey-based Milford Group which owns the land, told the Gazette it had been contacted by a travelling family from Ireland who had shown an interest in buying the land if planning permission for a permanent travellers' site was granted.

The proposals are for the site to be developed to accommodate six individual pitches and have not yet come before Arun's development control committee.

He said: "If the plan is refused we will have to go away and look at our options and that may mean leaving the land just sitting there empty for another two or three years."

The land has been the subject of several failed planning applications for housing in previous years, three of which were lodged by the Milford Group.

Speaking to the Gazette when the plans were first revealed, Mrs Abbott said: "We've lived here for five years and fought three previous applications and they've got a fight on their hands again.