Water supply issue may delay large housing developments
Water abstraction is impacting protected Arun Valley site
Large housing developments across a large swathe of West Sussex could be put on hold due to water supply issues.
Late last month Natural England issued a position statement for the Sussex North Water Supply Zone covering most of Crawley, the Horsham district and the northern half of the Chichester district.
Since it ‘cannot be concluded that the existing abstraction within Sussex North WSZ is not having an impact on the Arun Valley site’, it advises that new developments in this zone must not add to this impact.
The councils involved have been advised to resolve the matter in partnership through local plans where policies should be put in place to ensure water use is offset for all new developments within the zone.
While smaller scale householder applications may still be allowed, other large scale schemes could be put on hold until a strategy is developed unless they can demonstrate water neutrality.
Roger Smith, from the
Campaign to Protect Rural England’s Sussex branch, argued that with huge and unprecedented housing targets now in prospect and with development sites being imposed on the Chichester and Horsham districts that have not been allocated in local plans ‘ensuring that consequent increases in the demand for water can be met without causing irrecoverable harm to nature is essential’.
He added: “Whether the additional quantities of potable water that will be needed in consequence of the huge and unprecedented standardmethod-calculated housing targets for Horsham and Chichester districts can be sourced without damaging the naturalenvironmentneedsnow to be determined, as a matter of urgency.
“Whether the consumptioncontrol measures, advised by Natural England, which ultimately depend on the compliance of residents, would constrain abstraction sufficiently to prevent environmental harm needs to be assessed.
“In the meantime, housing targets and forward deliveryrates should be subject to review and reduced, and the allocation of strategic sites put on hold and the need for them reconsidered.
“This is essential because the standard method does not take in to account the environmental impact of development. This damaging omission needs to be addressed by the Government as a matter of urgency.”
A spokesman for Chichester District Council said: “We’re working closely with Natural England on this issue. Any planning application in the areas affected will need to demonstrate water neutrality through a mixture of water efficiency and offsetting.
“We have issued advice on our website setting out requirements for proposals to achieve water neutrality.
“The council is working on a joint study with neighbouring authorities to quantify the scale of the issue and identify proposed mitigation schemes to address this. This study is expected to report in December of this year.”
Paul Clarke, leader of Horsham District Council, added: “It is clear the water mitigation issue may impact our ability to deliver development in the future and we will need to consider this as part of our work on the local plan. We will continue to work together with our neighbouring councils, parishesandotherstakeholders to better understand what we can and will do.”
A spokesman for the South Downs National Park Authority explained that certain development proposals, such as new-build housing within the zone, will need to address the issue of water neutrality, but some applications will be excluded from this requirement.
In the longer-term, it is working jointly with the other affected authorities on a study and a strategy.