Residents to decide whether fight against 2,500 houses for North Bersted

A polling card is being delivered by parish councillors to all 3,800 homes in the parish.

It contains a simple question for individuals to answer '“ whether or not they want Bersted Parish Council to fight proposals for up to 2,500 homes on fields near Chalcraft Lane.

Answers have to be returned by August 23. The response will determine if the councillors decide in September to spend several thousand pounds to start a legal challenge to the proposals.

Fiona Dobbs, the parish council's clerk, said: "It is very important that people vote. The councillors will listen to what they have to say."

Information with the polling card will point out that the cost of fighting the scheme '“ by the Church Commissioners and farmer David Langmead '“ will increase council tax bills.

The total sum is likely to at least match the 105,685 spent by the council between 2000 and 2007 battling against the site six development plans.

Anti-housing campaigners have urged Bersted residents to have their say in the survey.

Clued (Chalcraft Lane Urban Extension Development) Up members recently put up four signs along Chalcraft Lane to draw the attention of passers-by to the planned development.

Iain Pelot said: "If people say in the poll the parish council should not spend money fighting the proposals, they need to be very clear about what they are going to lose.

"When you stand on Chalcraft Lane, everything you can see '“ with Goodwood and the South Downs '“ will disappear.

"Once the fields go under concrete that will be it. They will be lost for ever.

"It's not like the fair at West Park '“ there one week and gone the next."

Fellow campaigner Tom Frears said the development would almost double the size of Bersted, with an extra 6,000 living there in addition to the 8,000 already in the area. I am sure a lot of people will be very concerned about this matter because this is such a huge development," he said.

Nick Gibb, MP for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, welcomed news of the survey which he said gave the public the ability to fight the housing.

"A scheme the size of 2,500 homes will make a huge difference to the quality of lives for people in Bersted, as well as West Meads and Pagham, not to mention Bognor," he said.

"The lesson from recent campaigns is that the more people are involved, the better-run the campaign is and the more likely it is to succeed.

"That's the lesson we learned from the Ford eco-town campaign."

Most appropriate option

Building new homes on the outskirts of both North Bersted and Littlehampton was seen as the most appropriate option among one section of the community asked by Arun District Council.

The two choices which favoured those locations or other options of Littlehampton, Barnham and Angmering were both backed by 26 per cent of the 901 responses received from members of the council's representative Wavelength panel.

A further 18 per cent wanted the 5,500 homes needed by 2026 spread around the three options put out for consultation by the council '“ Ford completed the list '“ while 15 per cent wanted Ford alone to be chosen.

The remaining eight per cent did not want any development at all.

Tracey Flitcroft, Arun's senior planning officer for policy, says in a report: "The majority of respondents agreed that revitalising town centres was an issue that needs addressing, followed by the need to preserve and enhance Arun's character or environment and improving education, skills and training."

Biggest planning decision village has ever seen is at least six months away

A decision on probably the largest planning application Bersted has ever seen is at least six months away.

Arun District Council planning boss Karl Roberts said its councillors would not be making up their minds about the major proposals for 2,000 homes, employment space and a possible school and other community facilities until next February at the earliest.

He told Bersted parish councillors: "We have agreed with the developers that we will not be making a decision on this application until

the new year. It will probably be February at the earliest. That's the timescale that has been discussed with the applicant."

He explained the February meeting of Arun's development committee was chosen to decide the massive planning application for 140 hectares north of Chalcraft Lane '“ after the council's decision on December 9 about where to site 5,500 new homes needed to meet government house-building targets.

"A development of this size is the biggest thing that will impact on your community for a very long time, if not for ever," he said.

He added comments about the application could be made until a few days before a decision was taken.

Just a glimpse at the outline proposals shows the scale of what the landowners '“ the Church Commissioners and David Langmead '“ have proposed in what they have called the Bognor Regis Eco-Quarter. They want to build 1,000 three-bedroom houses along with 500 four-bedroom houses, 200 two-bedroom houses and 100 five-bedroom properties.

There will also be 100 each one and two-bedroom flats. Four out of every ten will be affordable homes. A further 500 homes could follow.

They estimate 4,400 people will live in the new community which will be bounded to the south by Chalcraft Lane, to the west by Lower Bognor Road, to the north by fields and to the west by the Chichester Road.

To serve them, the site is intended to provide 1,343 jobs with 51,550sq m set aside for shops, research and development firms, general industrial, and storage and distribution businesses.

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