Arun councillors back lower housebuilding numbers

And Littlehampton seems likely to pay the price for Arun councillors’ refusal to accept housebuilding figures recommended by officers.

The decision by Arun’s local plan sub-committee to recommend a cut in the total of homes built each year from 580 to 455 for the first six years, and then to review the numbers for the years after that, has thrown the district’s blueprint for the future into chaos and confusion.

But if next week’s full council approves the lower figures, it means that “Garden City” style developments, for 500 homes at Angmering and 2,000 in the Barnham, Eastergate and Westergate areas, would be dropped.

Both have been strongly opposed by villagers in those communities.

Planning officers told the sub-committee meeting on Thursday that the decision would result in a wholesale re-writing of the plan, delaying a further public consultation before it was due to go before a Government inspector for final scrutiny.

In the meantime, the district will be vulnerable to speculative, uncontrolled housing schemes submitted by developers, with Arun losing control over where homes could be built and far fewer gains from community infrastructure improvements than would have been achieved by a carefully mapped-out plan.

They also warned that the plan could ultimately be judged “unsound” by the inspector, for not providing adequate housing figures for the life of the plan, through to 2029.

With Angmering and the “Garden Cities” removed from the plan, Littlehampton’s West Bank would become the only major housing allocation – about 1,000 homes are proposed – to remain.

The scheme, also including a mix of business and leisure uses, and with new major flood defences, was originally due to be built towards the end of the plan, but may now have to come forward sooner.