CPRE Sussex Chair, David Johnson has written to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government asking him to ‘call in’ the two controversial planning applications on the grounds that they conflict with government policy and should never have been included in the district’s Local Plan.
Adur Council are poised to approve one of the proposals tonight (July 18) and the other later this month (July 30). However, CPRE Sussex says planners should now rethink the council’s position and wait until the government has responded to CPRE Sussex’s request before making any decisions.
“This application should not be approved, even subject to the call in request,” says CPRE Sussex Director, Kia Trainor. “The allocation is wrong and it shouldn’t be there”. “The council is proposing a huge raft of ‘conditions’ to try and reconcile all the objections they have had. We don’t think this is good enough”.
“We believe that the so called ‘benefits’ of the scheme are overrated and the harm in terms of traffic, air pollution, flood risk, loss of the green gap etc are huge,” adds CPRE Sussex Chair, David Johnson. “The affordable housing is not really affordable and this is not going to benefit other businesses – just IKEA and the developer”.
“This site should never have been included in the local plan when the cost of making it safe from flooding is so huge,”
The two applications - to build on meadows to the west of New Monks Farm and on land at nearby Shoreham Airport – have been the subject of widespread local controversy. Last week more than a dozen local groups sent an open letter to Adur Council warning it that its behaviour was ‘undemocratic’ and there have been strong objections from key consultees including Natural England and the National Park.
CPRE Sussex’s call-in request (see download link below) details how the council has contravened national planning laws and states that the size of what is being proposed “significantly exceeds” what was agreed by the Planning Inspector. The council is also, says the letter, in “conflict” with national policies regarding flooding, heritage and protected species.
You can support this action by sending in a ‘call in request’ similar to the CPRE Sussex version.
