The comments that follow are based on my having been working through your document at https://chichester.oc2.uk/document/6/31#topofdoc I write as an ordinary citizen with no expertise in planning and with very little knowledge of actual proposed developments. Which leaves a problem in meaningful comment at this stage, as the devil in planning is so often in the detail. I have lived in Chichester for over forty years, and propose simply to pass on a few thoughts about general principles, and I do not intend the order that follows to reflect any perceived relative importance. Nor do I seek to comment beyond Chichester itself.
I can see that you have clearly considered the general principles in considerable detail, and I am appreciative of such a comprehensive analysis. I appreciate that there are references to much of what follows in that analysis, but I hope that a few comments on particular issues may help.
I am concerned at the lack of affordable housing in Chichester, as in so many other places. To be honest, I think that the root of the problem goes back to the sale of council houses from the 1980s, which I can understand, but what I cannot forgive is the failure of that government in particular and its successors to provide the funding for that essential stock to be replaced. To develop this issue a little:-
• Every resident of Chichester is not affluent, and there is need for sufficient housing that all can afford either to buy or rent.
• I think that this applies, for instance, to young people starting a career in this area. I know that in 1970 it helped me to have a couple of years in a teacher’s council flat in Midhurst, which enabled me to build up the means of moving on into the housing market. Sadly such provision no longer exists.
• I think of someone I know (not in Chichester) who told me that once he was able to buy a house in his early thirties his mortgage payment was half the rent he had been paying
• I also think of those retiring with perhaps not that much savings who could well need affordable housing – and since your own analysis mentions the rising percentage of senior citizens, I think that this is a significant point, not least for widows or widowers. finding themselves on a single pension.
One point I did not notice in your analysis – perhaps this is my oversight in reading – was any mention of the provision of bungalows, of which it seems to me that there is a real dearth in Chichester. Again I think it is of particular relevance to Chichester having an ageing population, and I write as one thus affected. I am a pensioner and was widowed seven years ago now; my obvious next move would be to a bungalow. But where would I find one in Chichester? I do not want to move to Bognor nor go down to the coast So because of this dearth, (and partly also for family reasons), I remain in a family house which could otherwise be freed up for a younger family to move into, as we did when my wife and I were in our thirties. I think that this is an issue that the planners need rather more thought about.
I think that the linkage with amenities is an important consideration, of which I have seen little sign in Summersdale, where I live. There is still just the one doctor’s surgery; there has been no extra school; there is the one shop in The Broadway; there is (not that it concerns me) no pub.
I am concerned about the shortage of public transport. Where I live there is one bus per hour and nothing in the evenings or on a Sunday. This leads me to ask how far you really want to cajole people out of their cars, and I also think of the implications for those who cannot afford a car or are getting too old safely to drive. Cycling is reasonable from here, but I am writing as a regular and experienced cyclist, and I know of others who are frightened at the absence of separate cycle ways and especially by the Northgate gyratory.
I think that much better provision for cyclists should be an important part of planning policy. Some aspects of Chichester’s cycling is quite good, for instance bike parking and some cycle ways. But so much more needs to be done, and I am far from persuaded that the Whitehouse Farm project, for instance, has afforded anything like enough attention to cycling, especially if it means that we are to lose the present southern exit to Centurion Way.
Indeed the transport aspects of Whitehouse Farm worry me, not only about the lack of cycling provision, but also the impact that that will have on traffic on the already crowded Northgate Gyratory or also on West Street.
I accept that there is a need for expanded housing provision in Chichester. People are moving into the area for work or retirement, and those of us in retirement are living longer. Also there are more single person or single parent households than of yore, so provision is needed. I know that some will object to this view, and I can play NIMBY with the best of them; I also understand and value the desire to protect the present environment, which is important. Somehow this must be reconciled with the inescapable need for housing and a need for the younger generation not to feel that they are being excluded by the absence of housing or the exorbitant price to buy or rent locally. Any community is inherently dynamic, and housing provision has to match this.