The current development of 400 homes at Toddington has already destroyed the potential of growing glass-house and other crops.

A further proposal – not yet called an "Eco-Town", for at least 1,000 homes between Toddington and the Black Ditch (formerly known as van Heyningen's) would similarly rob the country of a large capability to provide essential food.

We are importing more food than ever and the nation would be at serious risk if these external food sources were to be cut off!

It is surely imperative that we maximise our own resources!

Arun District Council has much experience in assessing the suitability of land for various developments and it has a unique and intimate knowledge of sites in the area.

It has expressly stated that Ford is not a suitable site for an Eco-Town.

However, the government is prepared to enforce its own, inexpert, plans on a site which has already been rejected in local district plans which were confirmed by a government inspector and by its own secretary of state!

The several "advantages" put forward by the proponents of the Ford scheme should be taken with a very large pinch of salt.

They would have no power to ensure their provision and some are just not practical. They are merely words!

It is difficult to see how the government's own definition of an Eco-Town as a "freestanding development" could possibly apply to a site surrounded by the villages of Yapton, Ford and Climping, with very serious consequences for the neighbouring towns of Littlehampton, Arundel and even Bognor.

Wilf Daggett
Barn Close, Littlehampton

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