Southbourne Allocation Development Plan Document: Regulation 18 Consultation Assessment Framework

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The land in question is to the west of Chichester, near Thorney Island, and the current consultation is geared around various site allocation options within the Broad Location of Development (BLD) under Policy A13 of Chichester’s Submission Local Plan. Accordingly, given the distances involved to the shared boundary between our authorities, we do not anticipate any significant, direct, impacts for Arun and its residents or infrastructure arising from the housing scenarios being tested under this consultation. Nevertheless, we do have concerns over the fact that the various scenarios are seeking to test an overall housing number of just 800 dwellings, which is significantly lower than the policy requirement of 1,050 new homes – this policy position already representing a reduction compared with the 1,250 dwellings stated in the Preferred Approach version of the submission Local Plan. We note that CDC’s position has been to deduct newly consented dwellings within the parish from the total figure, but given current local housing pressures we consider your council should be seeking to be more ambitious with their testing of densities for Southbourne so that as much housing within the allocation can be delivered as is reasonably achievable, while taking account of the various constraints. This is particularly important given that Chichester has recently submitted a Local Plan with a suggested annual housing figure of 575 dwellings per annum (dpa) that is well below the objectively assessed housing needs (OAHN) of the plan area of 638 dpa, plus an allowance for accommodating unmet need arising from the Chichester District part of the South Downs National Park, which would take the OAHN to around 760 dpa in total. We appreciate that the government’s final response to the recent consultation on proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the planning system has yet to be published, however, if the revised method for calculating local housing need is taken forward as is currently proposed in the consultation, the new housing figure Chichester should plan for would rise to 1,206 dwellings per annum, which is more than double the figure the submission Local Plan is based on. In that scenario, we are concerned that CDC would be likely to look towards Arun and other neighbouring authorities to help meet unmet need in the future, when Arun already has the highest figure in the whole of West Sussex and we will struggle to meet our own needs, let alone accommodate unmet need from other districts. In conclusion, taking the above into account, we would urge Chichester District Council to be more ambitious in meeting as much of their need in the district as they can. Seeking to make the most efficient use of an area of land already identified for housing, such as the Southbourne allocation, by fully testing some higher densities that could give a greater dwelling yield that is nearer to the figure originally stated in the Preferred Approach version of the Local Plan would appear to be a sensible starting point in the circumstances.

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