I understand from Hunston Parish council that there is a plan to build at least 200 new homes in the village of Hunston. If it wasn't for the Parish council, I would not have known of this planned significant change to the village that I reside in or where the proposed sites were. I still have not found the map of proposals for Hunston on the CDC website as it doesn't appear to be with the other maps. The fact residents have not been fully informed of this proposal, have not provided an easy to find map of the proposals and the complexities and time spent trying to find a way to make any comment on this, suggests that the District Council are not actively encouraging comments.
In terms of the plan to build at least 200 homes in Hunston, I wish to object. This would increase Hunston by over a third, which is a proportionally huge amount and will negatively impact the village. Hunston has picturesque land surrounding the village, and such a large proportional increase in housing development will diminish the beauty of the village. Outside green spaces will disappear on productive and scenic farmland in areas which is used by local wild deer. I understand CDC's Landscape Capacity study in November 2018 recommended that only a small amount of development should be considered for Hunston and yet this appears to have been ignored.
Such an increase in housing also will have an obvious negative effect on the roads which is already choked far beyond capacity. The failure of the relevant authorities to consider the true effect on the A27, B2145 and B2145 because the new free school has already had a significant effect on traffic congestion going all the way back into the village at key points during the day. Adding further housing (and consequently more traffic) into the village will only make this worse. During summer months in school term, Selsey's annual summer increase in population alongside the school opening will also contribute to the gridlock we have already. If people chose not to commute by road, there is also no other safe way to access Chichester from Hunston for cyclists and pedestrians other than a muddy canal path. Consideration for the infrastructure of this needs serious consideration before any more housing is built.
Using an estimation that each new property will require at least one or two cars, provision will also need to be considered for parking in the village. Already roads are full with parked cars and commercial vehicles, except during standard weekday office hours which has over the years lead to an increase in irresponsible and sometimes illegal parking on roads and creating unrepaired damage to the grass verges. Having at least 200 houses in the village will only create more problematic parking as new developments give little consideration for the need for additional parking in their quest to maximise profit.