Work to start on controversial 250 home development in Pagham

Planning permission was granted by Arun District Council back in October last year and work was originally due to start in September 2022, but it was delayed by unforeseen circumstances.

Plans provide for 250 homes, 30 per cent of which will be affordable, land for an ambulance community response post facility, a new scout hut, children’s play areas and associated landscaping. They also involve the destruction of 80 Rose Green Road to make way for a new emergency access, which will otherwise be restricted for pedestrian and cycle access usage.

The development, dubbed Regis Park, has proven controversial with residents and local councillors. Before planning permission was granted, Pagham Parish Council filed an objection to the plans, calling the design ‘cramped’: “The council felt the layout was more suited to an urban area and should be more reflective of a village style.”

More seriously, the objection also mentioned a number of residents were worried about flooding: “There are continuing concerns from the Council for the residents of Lincoln Avenue, Rose Green Road and Osborne Way over flooding to their gardens,” the objection said. “The layout needs to allow for a drainage solution which will ensure this issue does not arise.”

Drainage engineers also levied a holding objection to the plans following a consultation back in June 2021, urging designers to consider layout and drainage ‘concurrently’.

"Insufficient information has been submitted to evidence that the proposed layout has sufficient space for surface water drainage,” they later added.

In September, the holding objection was revoked after more evidence was submitted and engineers were satisfied that a drainage solution was achievable.

Even so, concerns about flooding continue. Pagham’s district council representative June Hamilton (Ind) said residents of nearby Lincoln Avenue and Rose Green Road are still at risk of flooding, after pointing out that the designated development site spent much of last year underwater.

"That field is the natural drainage point for all the concrete and tarmac around it,” she explained. “The houses around Lincoln Avenue already flood, and when they take that away, I don’t see where all that water can satisfactorily go.

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