Unimpressed by bridge proposal

I was amused, bewildered and appalled in equal measure to see the Thakeham Homes advert in your paper for two weeks running.

Thakeham Homes claim to deliver ‘the biggest biodiversity project in the history of Sussex’ if they are granted planning permission to develop the Buck Barn site.

This claim comes from developers seeking to build 3,500 houses on farmland.

The promise of a nature bridge across both carriageways of the A24 as a ‘gift’ to West Sussex is a cynical and blatant use of a ‘sweetener’ to lessen the massive and irreversible impact that 3,500 houses with all the infrastructure required will have on the area.

It goes without saying the levels of pollution generated by households, schools and an industrial site as shown on the revised planning proposal

will be considerable.

The road systems both immediately around the site and further afield in minor roads and lanes will become gridlock hotspots, not just for residents of West Grinstead, Partridge Green, Cowfold, Copsale and Maplehurst but for all those car and truck drivers who transit the area on A24 and A272.

Promising to build a nature bridge as a ‘gift’ to the community should Thakeham Homes be granted planning permission is, at the very least, treating the people who live in West Sussex with contempt.

Trumpeting the development as ‘the biggest biodiversity project in the history of Sussex’ is arrogant in the extreme.

The artist’s impression of the nature bridge purveys rural tranquillity surrounding the structure with not a house in sight but I do have to ask: what creature would leave the sanctuary of Knepp to cross into a housing estate with people, concrete, Tarmac, cars, cats and dogs?

How is Thakeham homes going to stop cats (our principle wildlife predator) from crossing into Knepp as they promise to do?

It is completely unimaginable to think that a nature bridge such as is proposed will do anything to support a wildlife corridor.

Any sensible person can see it just won’t work.

Finally let us not forget that Thakeham Homes is certainly not a not-for-profit organisation.

I am sure the developers have already invested a considerable amount of money on this project and stand to make millions if they are successful in being granted planning permission at Buck Barn.

FRANCES MARTIN Member West Grinstead

Action Group, Cowfold Road, West Grinstead