Housing plans for allotment site in South Downs village
One objector to scheme said proposals were a ‘sick joke’
Residents have poured scorn on plans to build 78 new homes on an allotment site in a South Downs village.
Housing Association A2 Dominion is seeking planning approval to build the homes on allotments west of Ravenscroft in Storrington.
It is also seeking permission to relocate the current allotments to a new site in an adjoining field within the South Downs National Park.
But angry objectors have criticised the proposals, with one describing it as a ‘sick joke.’
Approval for the scheme is needed from both Horsham District Council and the South Downs National Park Authority.
The housing association said the houses would be a mix of one and two-bedroom flats, and two, three and four-bed houses.
The new allotment site, it said, would be bigger than the existingplotandthatadedicated wildlife area and country park would also be created in the fields around the allotments.
But a number of local villagers have objected to the proposals. One described the ‘irony’ of creating community parkland within a pre-exising national park as a ‘sick joke.’
Another described the proposals to establish allotments in the South Downs National Park as ‘an affront and should not be contemplated’.
And another said: “We don’t need a designated ‘recreation area’, the whole of the South Downs National Park is that by its nature.”
One resident pointed out that the existing Ravenscroft allotment site contained a great deal of debris including broken glass, carpets, polythene sheeting and plastic bottles.
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