Charity pressures councils over million empty homes

Councils should sell or let properties at a discounted rate to help reclaim the one million empty homes in the UK for families in need, a charity says.

Empty Homes has urged the government to pressure local authorities to create more affordable homes. 

Two million families need a home and 100,000 more new builds are required each year, statistics show.

More here from the BBC website...

Architects say new houses are 'shameful shoebox homes'

Unfortunately developers in West Sussex have been cramming people into smaller homes for years. Just look at Eden Park in Littlehampton - not a lush green welcoming place as the name suggests and you can bet your bottom penny 'greedy' Gleeson are already looking at altering the Courtwick Lane plans to see if they can cram in some more of these shoe box homes.

Read on...

New town at FORD could ‘ease’ Chichester housing pressure

Apparently a new town at Ford might be the answer to solving Chichester and Arun housing problems, it has been claimed. The city council’s planning and conservation committee agreed to urge Chichester District Council to start talks on the idea with neighbouring Arun – with Ford mentioned as a possible location for thousands of new homes.

Here we go again... Read more...

Arun District Council slash housing targets!

Here's some good sensible news for residents in Arun - ADC voted overwhelmingly to set its annual housebuilding rate for the next 17 years at 400 homes per annum, well below the previous government-imposed target for the district.

Read more here...

Ford reconsidered as a New Market Town?

These people just won't give up! Just when we thought we'd stopped the Eco Town - here comes the same proposal re-painted as a Market Town consisting of 5 villages!

They have simply re-hashed the failed Eco Town plans and bumped it up to 7,705 houses.

All the downloads are here http://www.audacity.org/035-Ford.htm

Here is a link to the plans (30MB pdf file)

Tomorrow is Decision Day

There is a strong possibility the application Y/81/10 will be moved forward on the agenda - so I would advise those wishing to attend arrive promptly.

The Development Control Committee will be held in the Council Chamber at the Arun Civic Centre, Maltravers Road, Littlehampton, on THURSDAY 26TH MAY 2011 at 2.30 p.m.

Provided we can get a signal in the chamber we’ll be posting updates on www.twitter.com/yaptonrag for people unable to attend.

Development Control Committee Meeting

A meeting of the Development Control Committee will be held in the Council Chamber at the Arun Civic Centre, Maltravers Road, Littlehampton, on THURSDAY 26TH MAY 2011 at 2.30 p.m. On the agenda is planning application Y/81/10, the proposed development comprising of the construction of 173 new properties to land north of Burndell Road.

I have condensed the PDF of the Planning Application Report to only include the application Y/81/10 which can be DOWNLOADED HERE.

It is important over the next week Yapton and Ford residents kindly remind Councillors of the reasons to oppose this application.

Back in January Councillor Ricky Bower, was asked whether the council would reject a 99.99 per cent vote against housing, in an official parish referendum, Mr Bower paused, before replying: “It would be extremely unlikely.”

If you would like to speak on behalf of residents please contact us 07515 396 183.

Arun housing plans in the hands of the people

People power could spell the end of large-scale housing developments in villages like Yapton, an Arun planning chief confirmed.

Councillor Ricky Bower, the district council’s cabinet member for planning, was speaking at a consultation evening in Yapton called to debate the issue of how many homes should be built in Arun over the next 17 years. More here...

APPLICATION NO: Y/81/10/

I am able to inform you that I have received an amendment to the above application dated 24th January 2011 relating to:- Substitute plans - Amendment to allow for provision of 40% affordable housing

If you should wish to make further representations as a result of this amendment you should do so by following the link below and clicking on ‘comment on this application’ by 24th February 2011. The amendments can be viewed by clicking on ‘documents’ in the top right corner of screen. www.arun.gov.uk/planning