Dear Sir,
I am responding to Mr. Iain Wright MP’s peculiar letter in the November/December issue of Yapton News and Views regarding the proposed Ford “Eco” Town.
Firstly, the development would have to be pretty amazing to justify bulldozing and concreting over 87% wheat-producing green fields, destroying the prolific wildlife, the ancient trees and hedgerows. Frankly, I don’t seem anything remotely amazing about the proposal. As every proposed alternative “eco friendly” method of producing energy for the site has been chucked out of the plan as unsustainable, we are back to our old friends electricity and gas! Nothing amazing here.
Apart from building a few cycle lanes in the vain hope that people will have bikes (it is impossible to prohibit 50% of the people using cars) and not building garages for the houses (my my what a lot of on street parking there will be!), there is nothing remotely “eco” about this tired old failed planning application at all.
But let’s look at the impact. Apart from the many very serious problems that have already been highlighted (no infrastructure, flooding, grid-locked roads etc etc), no, Mr. Wright, Ford does not have “very high housing need and thousands of households on waiting lists”. We have 40 families in the immediate area that require homes in the area. The couple of thousand in Bognor and Littlehampton do not want to leave family and friends and town life, to be plonked in the middle of nowhere, despite the developers rating the attractiveness of the development on the same level as Chichester! What a flight of imagination (or spin)! I think a similar rating to Ford Open Prison would be more accurate.
There is overwhelming opposition from all age groups in this area and the resentment generated could provide a very fertile breeding ground for conflict. I dread to think what will happen when the bored, unemployed, un-entertained youth of Ford “Eco” town meet the resentful young people of Yapton, who will seen their beautiful countryside devastated and the quiet village life of their childhood changed out of all recognition. I see trouble ahead.
Please do not be fooled by the greediness of the FAVG, Mr. Wright, the rich landowners who want to become even richer. Listen to the people, the local authorities and parish councils who are surely better placed to decide what is best for our area.
Name and address supplied.
