Bognor Regis Golf Club homes plan would 'annihilate' area says councillor

The plans would have seen the Bognor Regis Golf Club course, on Downview Road, redeveloped into a residential estate with apartment blocks and other housing, turning the old clubhouse into a community centre and creating new greenspaces and habitats for wildlife.

Concerns over recent greater-than-expected flooding on the course and overdevelopment of an area outside a built up area boundary, were the main reasons for refusal by Arun District Council’s planning committee at their meeting on Wednesday, February 14.

Other reasons for refusal were the development was also not allocated in the local plan, it would remove the golf course without having somewhere to relocate it, the loss of trees protected by TPOs, and failing to provide any affordable housing or contribution to future secondary schools through a section 106 agreement.

General manager of Bognor Regis Golf Club, James Maclean, said the club had ‘outgrown’ its current venue at Downview Road and needed space to expand, with over 1,000 members, mostly locals, and 35 employees.

He said: “Both as a business and community amateur sports club, we are working in an increasingly challenging environment – we have no space to provide new facilities and are facing increasing operational costs.

“We lost nearly two and a half months of play in 2023 and associated revenue as the course was unplayable during flood events and heavy rains.

“Relocation comes at a significant financial cost, especially securing suitable land for our new home and then constructing a new course.

“Having looked at various options, the only way for us to make this happen is through the redevelopment of our existing Downview Road site for new homes.”

An application for a new nine and 18 hole golf course, training greens and other facilities off Grevatts Lane in Climping, made by the club to become their new home, was also refused by the planning committee at the same meeting.

Around 830 letters of representation were sent to the council over the proposed new homes, most of which were objections, and around 60 in support of the development – with Felpham parish council stating 60 objections to the plans since their submission in 2021.

Felpham parish councillor Glenn Hewlett said the village has ‘had enough’ of development, and that future residents could struggle to insure their homes due to flood risks, making the development ‘unsellable, unlivable and unviable’.

He said: “The recent extensive flooding of the golf course must be of grave concern, flooding of this nature happens frequently with this year being the worst ever – it demonstrates this land cannot be safely built upon.

“Flooding will increase, be more frequent, more extreme and more widespread.”

Ricky Bower (Con, East Preston) said the plans would ‘annihilate’ Felpham and Bognor Regis through overdevelopment, returning the town to the ‘chaos’ it was in before the A259 relief road was completed in 2016.

He said it ‘beggars belief’ the club could have been closed for two months for flooding last year and developers still wanted to build there.

Housing density for the development was listed as 30 to 90 homes per hectare on a total of 39.6 hectares across the site.

Martin Lury (LDem, Bersted) said this was inner city levels of housing concentration in the countryside, and the loss of trees and raised land from development would cause further flooding in Felpham and wider Bognor Regis.

Simon Mcdougall (Lab, Pevensey) said existing drainage had ‘failed spectacularly’ last year in several places across Arun district, claiming the application amounted to ‘environmental vandalism’ and is not ‘fit for purpose’.

Objections were submitted to the housing plans by the Environment Agency, West Sussex County Council Wildlife Protection, WSCC as the flood authority, Arun District Council drainage officers and WSCC Education.

Bognor Regis Town Council and WSCC Highways raised concerns about the highway network being overloaded by the new development, with WSCC saying it would need significant investment from the developers to help offset this.

Flansham Park Health Centre also raised concerns about not being able to provide for all the new homes without increased investment.