Homes site not suitable

Chichester District Council has served formal notice that a CPO is to be used to allow the building of 15 affordable homes within the AONB to go ahead.

This green field site off Crooked Lane in Birdham is outside of the village boundary has been designated an “Exception site” by CDC even though there has never been suitable access.

They failed to establish this detail at the start and have now had to resort to the use of a CPO to acquire land from residents for an access road to be built in what appears to be a “face saving” exercise.

Furthermore, CDC seem to be ignoring the guidelines set down in the government “National

Planning Policy Framework” which states that: “Applications for rural exception sites can be considered within designated areas such as Green Belt, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and

National Parks, however they must have suitable and safe access and must be located in areas of low flood risk”.

This site fails to meet the criteria as there is no “Suitable” access without acquiring land from the residents by force, the access will not be “Safe” as it is located opposite the entrance to Birdham Primary School, and the field in question regularly floods.

I have repeatedly contacted Gillian Keegan to question why this project is still under consideration given that there must be more suitable sites that meet NPPF requirements and do not involve encroaching on the land of residents, but I have not received a response.

One can only conclude that Gillian Keegan and CDC are not really interested in protecting our local environment and that although the designation of AONB looks good on paper, it means little or nothing in practice. Paul Kirkin

The Saltings, Birdham