Adur District is squeezed between the South Downs and the sea and bisected by the River Adur. With 55% of the district protectected landscape, land available for development is in short supply. The remaining green field sites surrounding the airport, part of the Adur old estuary are now targeted for development, along with ‘brownfield sites’ surrounding the harbour and riverside, the latter along the A259 appealing to developers with riverside townhouses converted from Sixties offices selling for some £800,000.
The Shoreham Harbour Joint Action Area Plan (JAAP) is now seen as the key to a major regeneration project due for completion by 2031; alongside new workplaces, it includes 1,400 new homes (300 in Brighton and Hove).
However no solutions to the likely resulting traffic congestion have yet been mooted.
Since 2015 the Environment Agency has been locally engaged in the extensive £25 million Adur Tidal Walls Scheme to protect against river flooding, which is to be completed by 2019 is also intended to facilitate future development.
CPRE Sussex made very robust submissions about weaknesses in the Adur Local Plan and was a key participant at its public examination.
Significantly, the Planning Inspectorate agreed, this September, that the Government’s promulgated housing target of 6,825 homes by 2032 was unrealistic, reducing this to 3,718 or 325 new homes each year (rather than 412). The Local Plan will now be considered for adoption by Adur Council in December.
Development applications are already with Adur DC for two sites in greenfield areas that threaten the long established strategic green gap between Lancing and Shoreham. They include, on New Monks Farm, 600 homes, a school, a flagship IKEA and at Shoreham Airport, a 25,000 square metre commercial development.
CPRE Sussex continues to strongly oppose such inappropriate greenfield developments which impact views from the South Downs National Park and Lancing College, exacerbate traffic difficulties on the A27, contribute to already unacceptable levels of air pollution, sever access for pedestrians, cyclists and equestrians, damage wildlife habitat and airport operations and increase drainage problems for the whole of Lancing.
Working closely with community and local organisations, including Adur Floodwatch, AREA and the Shoreham Society, we continue to campaign strongly against New Monks Farm and its IKEA store, the inappropriate development proposed for Shoreham Airport that will further threaten its viability. Plus the vast swathe of JAAP apartment homes promised along Shoreham Harbour that are unlikely to include even a few ‘council’ or truly subsidised homes in its planned, too tall, blocks.
Such inappropriate development continues to threaten both town and country in Adur and will continue to be challenged by CPRE Sussex for years to come as we work to shape a sustainable and positive future for Adur and for Sussex.
Bill Freeman and David Johnson
