Homes appeal blow

Plans for green gap approved

Campaigners fighting to save a green gap were dealt a devastating blow late last week after a developer won its appeal to build 475 homes on the land.

Hundreds of residents who opposed development of part of the Goring Gap, separating Worthing and Ferring, were backed last year when Worthing Borough Council rejected Persimmon Homes’ scheme. But the developer appealed the decision and, following an inquiry last month, an inspector overturned the council’s decision. In a decision letter, inspector Rory Cridland focused heavily on Worthing’s housing shortage as a key reason for approving the outine plans. The site was featured in the WSG’s ongoing campaign to protect green spaces.

The decision to allow outline plans for 475 homes on a treasured green gap is a clear example of how farcical government housebuilding figures are trashing both our county and local democracy.

Opposition to the development of part of Goring Gap, between Worthing and Ferring, has been unequivocal.

More than 1,000 residents, the area’s MP and Worthing Borough Council were united in their insistence that this site, known as Chatsmore Farm, was unsuitable for development.

But local decision making counted for nothing. At the end of last week, an inspector from the Planning Inspectorate – headquartered in Bristol – allowed an appeal by Persimmon Homes against the council’s refusal of the developer’s controversial plans.

Worthing’s housing shortage was a key factor.

The numbers are stark. According to standard government calculations, the borough needs 14,160 new homes over a 16-year period– 885 a year.

In contrast, the council’s draft local plan outlines a blueprint for a minimum of about 230 homes a year – 3,672 over the same period.

The shortfall is not the result of a dereliction of duty. The inspector said the council had ‘left no stone unturned in identifying sites that can sustainably assist in meeting its housing needs’.

He was right. The council has identified plans for its key brownfield sites – the type of developments many people cansupport, providing there is suitable infrastructure.

Inroads have been made on affordable housing, too, with the partnership with IKEAbacked Boklok delivering 162 flats –72 per cent of which based on its ‘left to live’ model aimed at providing ‘genuinely affordable’ homes.

Historically, the council had many critics when it approved the greenfield West Durrington development but a significant amount of homes have been delivered and building continues today.

All this might seem like sensible, sustainable planning. But in a world influenced heavily by standardised, central government housing calculations, it is not enough.

Yet the problem with the official figure is it is impossible to achieve. The inspector conceded the difficulty, writing: “While I acknowledge that this area of the country is one of the most densely developed areas of the UK, and that even if the council was to develop every blade of grass within its administrative area, meeting this need is likely to prove challenging for the foreseeable future.”

Despite this concession, the inspector ultimately concluded that the contribution of 475 homes in context of Worthing’s housing shortage should be afforded ‘very significant weight’.

While this might be a reasonable conclusion in planning terms, the truth of the matter is the development of Goring Gap will have a negligible effect in helping to deliver the government’s gargantuan numbers.

Over the period of the local plan, it would still leave Worthing some 10,000 homes short, with precious little options left for development, unless the Channel or the Downs are now fair game.

Is this a case of every little helps? We question whether the perceived benefits truly outweigh the objections of those who have devoted years to protecting this site.

This case certainly does not accord with Boris Johnson’s pledge to stop ‘jamming’ the South East with housing, or the prioritisation of brownfield building over the desecration of greenfield land.

And, as our campaign has consistently warned, these types of decisions should come as little surprise because since the Prime Minister’s October Conservative Party Conference speech, no new policies have come into force to help realise that ambition.

Instead, we are stuck with the same old, damaging policies which seek to impose unsustainable levels of housebuilding on our county.

Worthing Borough Council leader Kevin Jenkins said recently that the government ‘refuses to see sense on this issue’. His anger is well placed.

Inaction on a national level means – like many greenfield sites before it – it could be too late for Chatsmore Farm.

It is shameful and enough is enough. What will it take for the government sit up and listen – and most crucially, act?