The geography of the Chichester District makes the realisation of the housing numbers in our Local Plan Review nigh unachievable. As the north of the District is now within the SDNP the land available for development is greatly reduced. Therefore the Coastal Plain has become the target for excessive development and must be restrained.
The threat of a Climate Change Emergency, which the Council have agreed to, and the threat of rising water levels in areas close to the sea do nothing for future development in the Plain.
This should be a exceptional circumstance where the NPPF can be challenged. In fact the whole of the NPPF is in need of a review regarding the housing numbers determined for Chichester District. The methodology for fixing housing needs is flawed and the same applies to the requirements for Gypsy and Travellers sites.
The infrastructure for the Plan Area is also in need of serious attention. The A 27 situation worsens almost daily with no hint of when, if ever, this will be remedied, the availability of Doctors and appointments at the too few surgeries and, to a slightly lesser degree, hospital spaces and of course, becoming even more serious is the capability of Southern Water to manage the treatment of waste water and sewage. So let’s consider Southern Waters’ inadequacies. They have been courting trouble for some years now for discharging effluent into the harbour from their Appledram WWTW, and they are still discharging raw untreated sewage into the River Lavant from properties in the Villages within the Valley. And this is 2020! It is a disgrace. The system in Westhampnett still requires the attendance of tankers to relieve the overflowing of the drains in the Village.
The works carried out by Southern Water at their Easthampnett (Tangmere) WWTW two years ago was to increase the capacity by a additional 3,000 new homes. To facilitate the transport of effluent from the west of Chichester they are currently building a Trans Chichester Pipeline to Easthampnett. This because there will never be any additional capacity at Appledram. This is all very well but the current proposals for sites around Chichester have already swallowed this increased 3,000 capacity. Many of these are already well underway. Whitehouse Farm has approximately 1,500 dwellings, Madgewick Park 350 houses, New Fields, off the Oving Road, an unknown number yet, more planning permissions required but in the region of 150 houses and a new proposal for 200 homes at Old Place Farm, yet to be lodged and finally the SDL site at Tangmere which will produce 1,200 new houses.
What will Southern Water pull out of the hat when these are all connected. And of course these numbers take no account of the “Windfall” developments of which in Chichester District there are many.
So, looking at the Big Picture, Chichester District cannot possibly be expected to fulfil a five year supply of 620 new homes per annum. The infrastructure struggles with the requirement of 425 new homes under our existing Local Plan which is currently under review.