Review of 'Bogchester' raises more than 70 objections

More than 70 objections have been raised in the review from consultancy firm DPDS, highlighting residents' and councillors' major concerns.

The plans for Church Commissioners to sell the land have already come under huge criticism, as the Archbishop of Canterbury failed to raise any objections to building on the prime farming land at Chalcraft Lane while stressing the need for Britain to grow more of its own produce.

Topping the list of residents' issues is the widely-held belief the already over-stretched A259 road cannot handle the additional significant volume of traffic which could be up to 4,000 cars.

The report also states the application would potentially clash with Arun District Council's core development plan in terms of providing alternative sites for housing '“ which is not expected until February after being held-up by planning backlogs.

Another key concern centres on the issues of creating urban sprawl with the creation of a new conurbation which residents have dubbed 'Bogchester'.

But in a parish poll held in August, an overwhelming majority of 87 per cent of residents were against the plans on environmental and traffic grounds.

The proposals are expected to include land set aside for business use, but this has been labelled completely inadequate without road infrastructure being in place to service any new industry.

A key statement in the report read: "The proposed development would have a significant urbanising effect which would be harmful to the landscape, character and visual amenity of the countryside and would damage the integrity of the Bognor Regis-Chichester strategic gap.

"The environmental statement does not adequately consider alternative development sites and its environmental statement does not adequately consider the social impact of development."

West Sussex County Councillor Simon McDougall expressed considerable concern at the scheme.

He said: "This application simply does not pass muster. It would double the amount of people in the Bersted area to 16,000 and the road network is just inadequate to handle the traffic."

Tom Frears of anti-housing campaign group Clued UP added the application was unacceptable on numerous levels.

He said: "The main grounds we are fighting this on are on traffic, flooding risk and the fact that employment is not provided for.

"This is not going to help the regeneration of Bognor Regis at all and simply mean more people commuting out of the area."

Brian Knight, chairman of Bersted Parish Council, added while it was not opposed to development in Bognor Regis, this could happen only if additional road infrastructure were fully in place and a significant level of jobs were available for an influx of new residents.

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