Too late to save our Sussex?

The following is in response to the two-page ‘Unsustainable housing targets’ Behind the Headlines piece on Thursday, March 10th asking the readership to speak out about the housing situation.

Residents have indeed had enough, but many are now tired of the fight and feel nothing will ever change so therefore are no longer trying. Apathy is widespread.

The issues and symptoms are at local level but the true underlying crux of the matter and root cause is at parliamentary level.

If PM Johnson stated at such conference we should not be building on green fields, then he needs to get his minions in order and cascade that instruction down through the lines to local planning authorities, and especially to the Planning Inspectorate under the Secretary of State Michael Gove.

Your article outlines most of the issues, but in relation to wastewater and sewage I should point out that it is no longer a question of ‘… whether our sewage system can accommodate...’ but an established fact supported by substantive verifiable evidence.

Just for the record, every new home generates an average 336 litres of incremental wastewater and sewage daily.

A category 1, 2 or 3 spill is 100 per cent wastewater released directly into our waterways and the Environment Agency naively thinks that frequently occurring category 3 doesn’t add up to category 1 yet waterways such as Chichester Harbour for example have lost their quality status and are now unfavourable and deteriorating. Rivers and other harbours similarly.

Storm spills are also described by DEFRA as highly diluted but now in fact contain a wastewater and sewage concentration of 30-50 per cent and which increases proportionately for each new dwelling occupied, irrespective of whatever a watewater treatment works supposedly has as headroom.

DEFRA assures us it is working tirelessly to protect the environment, but alas doesn’t seem able to deliver anything meaningful.

And just down the corridor of power sits the Secretary of State for Housing, still taking us down the path of environmental destruction of our countryside with a team of planning inspectors who override any local decisions to do otherwise under a biased NPPF.

Highways similarly, where mitigating improvements will likely never happen, with both WSCC’S highways department and National Highways admitting it will not even consider implementation of the recognised highways mitigation imperatives until it receive all the s106 contributions from all of the related developments.

They have no contingency plan to provide for the incremental 1.6 vehicles per household.

As for healthcare infrastructure, does anyone have any idea what the health authority plan is to meet the needs of an incremental 2.4 persons per new occupied home?

As an aside, each new build also brings an average 1.6 cats and 1.4 dogs per home which is an important additional consideration in relation to wildlife and habitat.

You ask the readership how they can help, but the reality is that it may already be too late.

Many further potential developments on ‘green fields’ have already been given outline approval and are currently at various reserved matters stages and will kick-off when the developer decides to do so.

These will be almost impossible to stop I suspect, but we should endeavour to do so until and unless truly sustainable by our environment and infrastructure.

So, let’s bombard Messrs Johnson and Co. and of course our own MPS accordingly. Emphasis on bombard!

KEITH MEADMORE A’beckets Avenue

Aldwick