FORD ECO-TOWN: 'Eco-Ford more like eco-fraud'

And the county council was warned that a proposed 5,000 homes could end up as a figure of nearer 15,000 to 20,000.

Council leader Cllr Henry Smith said he feared that if an eco-town went ahead, it would be in addition to the allocation of new houses for West Sussex in the South East Plan.

"New settlements and additional housing need careful consideration, and should not be parachuted in," he declared.

Cllr James Walsh said the vast majority of land proposed for the eco-town was prime agricultural land, and much more than Ford airfield.

Proposals for development had been around for five or six years in one form or another, long before the developers hitched their flag to the eco-town.

"This is less of eco-Ford and more of eco-fraud," he told the county council.

The proposals referred to the building of 5,000 homes, but the developers proposed a new secondary school, two new primary schools, link roads to the A27, bringing forward improvements to the Arundel and Chichester bypasses, and moving the railway station.

"There is disbelief that this can be funded from 5,000 houses, and perhaps it may be a kite-flying proposal for nearly 15,000 to 20,000," said Cllr Walsh.

Cllr Smith agreed that the proposals had been around for a considerable time, with the prime minister announcing the so-called eco-towns only last summer.

The so-called eco-towns were of great concern from a democratic point of view '“ other housing proposals had gone through a careful planning and consultation process.

Putting 'eco' in front of something did not make it environmentally sustainable.