Draft Interim Policy Statement for Housing Development

1. Sewerage System capacity requirements to be taken into consideration prior to any further housing development.
It is well known that Westhampnett has a severe issue with foul drainage, in fact the system in Stane Street is past capacity resulting in pumping / tankering having to be undertaken on a regular basis. Given that Southern Water cannot provide adequate capacity for Westhampnett at present Westhampnett Parish Council would seek to have an Upgrade to the Sewerage System completed as a prerequisite to any further development. Ie Southern Water must actually sort out the current problems and provide suitable additional capacity before anything further is built. It is imperative that strong requirements are laid at the door of developers and Southern Water to provide this urgently, or the housing growth required throughout the District cannot take place, as this is also a matter of concern in other areas of the district - the infrastructure for sewage disposal is now inadequate, and needs upgrading.

Not being highly knowledgeable on all the Policies the Parish Council believe that there are 2 areas within the document that pertain to this issue, namely:

On page 4 of 10, Item 4.5
Locational Sustainability
4.5 Sites should be sustainably located in relation to existing settlements, with access to the facilities and services that are generally likely to be required by new residents. Policy 2 of the CLPKP, and emerging policy S2 of the LPR, sets out the settlement hierarchy which will inform consideration of any proposed site.

On page 7 of 10, Item 6.2 sub item 7 and on page 9 of 10 Item 6.2 sub item 11
7. Development proposals should set out how necessary infrastructure will be secured, including, for example: wastewater conveyance and treatment,
affordable housing, open space, and highways improvements. Relevant policies include:

• CLPKP Policy 9 Development and Infrastructure Provision
• CLPKP Policy 12 Water Management in the Apuldram Wastewater Treatment Catchment
• CLPKP Policy 34 Affordable Housing
• CLPKP Policy 54 Open Space, Sport and Recreation
• LPR Policy S6 Affordable Housing
• LPR Policy S12 Infrastructure Provision
• LPR Policy S31 Wastewater Management and Water Quality
11. Development must be located, designed and laid out to ensure that it is safe, that the risk from flooding is minimised whilst not increasing the risk of flooding
elsewhere, and that residual risks are safely managed. This includes, where relevant, provision of the necessary information for the LPA to undertake a
sequential test, and where necessary the exception test, incorporation of flood mitigation measures into the design (including evidence of independent
verification of SUDs designs and ongoing maintenance) and evidence that development would not constrain the natural function of the flood plain, either by
impeding flood flow or reducing storage capacity. All flood risk assessments should be informed by the most recent climate change allowances published by
the Environment Agency. Relevant policies include:

• CLPKP Policy 42 Flood Risk and Water Management
• LPR Policy S27 Flood Risk Management
• LPR Policy DM18 Flood Risk and Water Management

Relevant evidence includes:
• Strategic Flood Risk Assessment Level 1
• Chichester Surface Water and Foul Drainage SPD (Supplementary Planning Document)

2. Overdevelopment of any one area

Westhampnett Parish Council are acutely aware of the housing requirements laid down by Government, and passed down to Local councils. The proposed increase to 628 dwellings per annum, from 435 dwellings per annum is too large an increase.

It is simply not acceptable to continually build more housing in a Parish where new housing will have already increased by nearly 600 in the last few years, with 400 of those in the last 2 years, to the next 18 months. The Parish needs to settle as a community, and there is great concern as to the intentions for the large brown area marked HWH0001b, denoted as Site Allocation, on the attached HELAA map. This area was surrounded with a blue line in the previous Local Plan and at that time linked with the Madgwick Lane development and N.E.Chichester. Whilst more land is obviously needed if the housing objectives are to be met, developing this area would result in a completely changed Chichester with no divide between the City and the Parish of Westhampnett, and the Parish Council consider this to be overdevelopment of any one area.

The Parish Council would like to see a Policy within the Interim Policy Statement that acknowledges this and fully considers the issue. The aim needs to be for smaller sites providing settlement growth, rather than larger sites which significantly alter the character of the place, definitely not resulting in actual or perceived coalescence with other settlements, or affecting potential value or existing value of wildlife corridors.

The Parish Council very much hopes that these 2 very important points are noted, and suitable constraints included within the Interim Policy Statement.