Arun District Council wish to hear the views of members of the public on the Core Strategy ’Options for Growth’ and Initial Sustainability Commentary published by Arun District Council as part of the progress of the Local Development Framework. Arun District Council has published detail of three preferred options for the location of strategic development in the Arun District in the future. The consultation period runs from 12th February 2009 to 2nd April 2009.
You can visit the ADC page here
Here is the important bit, we've got to get as many people as possible to answer the online questionnaire as it will effect all of us whether the eco-town gets the go ahead or not. If ADC get Ford as the preferred growth Option it won't matter if we beat FAVG Ford will be open season to any developer forever and we will have little grounds to stop any development. This really is our future and we must say NO more housing on such large scales.
You can download a PDF of the Core Strategy and questionnaire.
Thursday, 12 February 2009
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Your chance to grill Government on eco-town
THE West Sussex Gazette is giving readers the chance to grill a Government minister over the proposals for an eco-town at Ford. The Department for Communities and Local Government says it is keen to tackle some of the myths that have come up regarding the plans.
People who want to have their say should write to the West Sussex Gazette with their questions for Iain Wright, who is a parliamentary under-secretary of state at the department, by Wednesday, February 18.
West Sussex Gazette
Cannon House
Chatworth Road
Worthing
BN11 1NA
Email: david.white@westsussextoday.co.uk
Apologies for publishing the wrong address - thanks to all who pointed this out...
People who want to have their say should write to the West Sussex Gazette with their questions for Iain Wright, who is a parliamentary under-secretary of state at the department, by Wednesday, February 18.
West Sussex Gazette
Cannon House
Chatworth Road
Worthing
BN11 1NA
Email: david.white@westsussextoday.co.uk
Apologies for publishing the wrong address - thanks to all who pointed this out...
Monday, 9 February 2009
Another one bites the dust
One of our eagle-eyed sources spotted this in Saturday's Telegraph:
"BUILDER PULLS OUT OF ECO-TOWN PLAN
Gordon Brown's eco-town policy has suffered another blow after a developer pulled out of building one of the controversial settlements. O&H Properties withdrew from the scheme for 20,000 homes in Marston Vale, Beds, because of the time constraints and requirements for an eco-town. Of the government's original shortlist of 15 sites there are 11 remaining. Up to 10 are proposed, with five due to be built by 2016".
Good news or bad for our CAFE campaign - who knows!
"BUILDER PULLS OUT OF ECO-TOWN PLAN
Gordon Brown's eco-town policy has suffered another blow after a developer pulled out of building one of the controversial settlements. O&H Properties withdrew from the scheme for 20,000 homes in Marston Vale, Beds, because of the time constraints and requirements for an eco-town. Of the government's original shortlist of 15 sites there are 11 remaining. Up to 10 are proposed, with five due to be built by 2016".
Good news or bad for our CAFE campaign - who knows!
Saturday, 7 February 2009
Council house tenants offered £30,000 bribes to move out
Millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money is being spent encouraging people in social housing to move to the private sector — either as home-buyers or tenants. Those in larger council homes are also being offered cash payments of up to £3,000 per bedroom if they agree to downsize to a smaller social house or apartment. Click here for more...
Thursday, 5 February 2009
Help bring empty homes back into use...
I've just heard from the CPRE that there is an Early Day Motion tabled in the House of Commons (and with cross-party support too) calling for a reduction in the rate of VAT on building repairs and improvement work to existing buildings.
This has to be a better and more sustainable way to provide housing than building new houses on our fields - helping protect the countryside and our heritage.
http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=36999&SESSION=899
If you agree, please ask your MP to sign EDM 7: VAT on repairs and maintenance to existing buildings.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/
This has to be a better and more sustainable way to provide housing than building new houses on our fields - helping protect the countryside and our heritage.
http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=36999&SESSION=899
If you agree, please ask your MP to sign EDM 7: VAT on repairs and maintenance to existing buildings.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/
Tuesday, 3 February 2009
Poor Mr Gummidge
It hasn't been an easy start to 2009 for Mr G... My Father died January 4th after a five year battle against cancer... Sorting out the numerous complications that relate to such an event can then take away a month of your life, hence me being away from the fray...
So, I welcomed the first day of February with the customary 'pinch punch' that Mrs G and I have become accustomed to... However, just as your straw filled friend is starting to get some renewed perspective on life - the credit crunch spangs me full on!
Mr G's employers, a global publishing company based in Sussex decides I am no longer needed and gives me the elbow!
Hmmm... I wonder what I will do with all this time... I feel a book coming on... Eco Towns for Dummies?
So, I welcomed the first day of February with the customary 'pinch punch' that Mrs G and I have become accustomed to... However, just as your straw filled friend is starting to get some renewed perspective on life - the credit crunch spangs me full on!
Mr G's employers, a global publishing company based in Sussex decides I am no longer needed and gives me the elbow!
Hmmm... I wonder what I will do with all this time... I feel a book coming on... Eco Towns for Dummies?
Saturday, 31 January 2009
CAFÉ NEWSLETTER January 2009
Dear Friends and Supporters
A belated Happy New Year!
I have to say it, seems as if we are already half way through the year with so much happening in just the last few weeks.
Hopefully you have all sent your CAFÉ Xmas card to the DCLG. If you haven’t please do, it will help remind the Government’s eco-town team that Ford must be dropped from their list.
The Shadow Housing Minister, Grant Shapps MP, visited the area on January 19th. This was an extremely positive and useful day for everyone. Grant toured the entire Ford site. He then held an informal meeting with CAFÉ, Ford PC, Climping PC, Yapton PC, Walberton PC, Barnham PC, Arundel TC and Littlehampton TC, to listen to each community’s express concerns.
Grant used this opportunity to stress that the Tory policy will be a return to local communities deciding on their future, not Central Government. If there is a change in Government, the eco-town process would be scrapped, provided schemes were not in build.
You will have probably heard that the legal challenge, Judicial Review, on the eco-town process was dismissed. This is a great shame but not a set back. It simply means that we haven’t managed to cut short the eco-town process, we will simply have to keep on fighting and send our message even more vigorously and loudly to the Government’s eco-town team leaving them in no doubt that Ford must be removed from their list. The fight must go on so keep on writing to the DCLG, the local papers and this blog.
Finally, CAFÉ have been busy working up our response to Arun District Council for the Select Committee process on Ford. The Committee has met once and reconvenes on February 5th. The recommendations of this Committee will form Arun’s response to the DCLG on the 2nd Phase consultation process for the eco-town process.
Along with writing papers for Arun, CAFÉ are also putting together our final response to the Government’s eco-town team which you will soon be able to find on the CAFÉ website
Thank you for your continued support. Keep fighting and we will win!
Vicky
A belated Happy New Year!
I have to say it, seems as if we are already half way through the year with so much happening in just the last few weeks.
Hopefully you have all sent your CAFÉ Xmas card to the DCLG. If you haven’t please do, it will help remind the Government’s eco-town team that Ford must be dropped from their list.
The Shadow Housing Minister, Grant Shapps MP, visited the area on January 19th. This was an extremely positive and useful day for everyone. Grant toured the entire Ford site. He then held an informal meeting with CAFÉ, Ford PC, Climping PC, Yapton PC, Walberton PC, Barnham PC, Arundel TC and Littlehampton TC, to listen to each community’s express concerns.
Grant used this opportunity to stress that the Tory policy will be a return to local communities deciding on their future, not Central Government. If there is a change in Government, the eco-town process would be scrapped, provided schemes were not in build.
You will have probably heard that the legal challenge, Judicial Review, on the eco-town process was dismissed. This is a great shame but not a set back. It simply means that we haven’t managed to cut short the eco-town process, we will simply have to keep on fighting and send our message even more vigorously and loudly to the Government’s eco-town team leaving them in no doubt that Ford must be removed from their list. The fight must go on so keep on writing to the DCLG, the local papers and this blog.
Finally, CAFÉ have been busy working up our response to Arun District Council for the Select Committee process on Ford. The Committee has met once and reconvenes on February 5th. The recommendations of this Committee will form Arun’s response to the DCLG on the 2nd Phase consultation process for the eco-town process.
Along with writing papers for Arun, CAFÉ are also putting together our final response to the Government’s eco-town team which you will soon be able to find on the CAFÉ website
Thank you for your continued support. Keep fighting and we will win!
Vicky
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Press release from Nick Herbert MP
Given that the news from the High Court was a bit of a downer - I thought I'd put a press release I just got on here to show that the fight continues!
For me - it's not just about Ford Eco Town, it's also about any kind of unsustainable development, wherever it is!
Housing targets for Arun are “unsustainable”
Arundel & South Downs MP Nick Herbert has said that the Government-imposed targets for house-building in Arun over the next 20 years are unsustainable and threaten the character of our villages and countryside.
Mr Herbert raised particular concerns about the proposed additional housing in the Five Villages area and at Angmering.
The MP was speaking at public meetings in Aldingbourne on Friday evening (23 January) and Angmering on Saturday morning (24 January) following the publication of a report by Arun District Council which sets out options for building thousands of new homes in the district by 2026.
The report, entitled ‘Arun Core Strategy – Options for Growth’, has already been considered by the Council’s Local Development Framework (LDF) Sub-Committee and will be issued for public consultation from 12 February to 26 March.
The report sets out the following options for development in Arun:
1) Sustainable urban extensions, with 2,500 homes to the north-west of Bognor Regis, 2,000 north of Littlehampton and 500 at Angmering, with a further 400-900 on greenfield sites on the edge of existing inland settlements;
2) An ‘eco-town’ of 5,000 homes at Ford, with a further 400-900 on greenfield sites elsewhere in the district;
3) Expansion of inland villages – 2,500 around Barnham, Eastergate and Westergate, 1,500 at Angmering and 1,500 north of Littlehampton, with a further 400-900 on greenfield sites elsewhere in the district.
The Council will choose one, or a combination, of the three options and produce a draft Core Strategy which will be subject to a further round of public consultation, before a final version is submitted to the Secretary of State. The Council has already indicated that it has a preference for Option 1, believing it to be more sustainable than Options 2 and 3.
The LDF process will help Arun to meet its obligation to build 11,300 new houses by 2026. This figure represents an increase of 2,000 on the original target of 9,300 set out in the draft South East Plan, prepared by the South East England Regional Assembly (SEERA).
Mr Herbert said: “We all know that there is a problem for young people who cannot get a foot on the property ladder, and think we accept that there will have to be some increase in housing. The debate will be about how much housing there should be and then about where you put it. But I think the overall levels of housing which are being proposed for the South East, for West Sussex and for Arun, are unsustainably high.
“We’ve already seen a situation in which the number of houses proposed for West Sussex over the next two decades has increased from 58,000 to more than 74,000. 10,000 of those have been absorbed in Shoreham but a significant amount of the extra housing that has been allocated through the Regional Assembly, and in the Government demanding that there should be more, will be built in Arun where the allocation has gone up from 9,300 to 11,300. And that puts our own local authority in a very difficult position. Extremely difficult decisions will have to be taken about where to allocate that housing.
“I think we all have to decide, as a West Sussex community, whether we want to turn our rural villages into a kind of suburban conurbation, because that could happen over the next 20 years if these decisions are got wrong. We will find that our villages lose their individual identities and developments will run into each other, much as they have done around Worthing. I suspect that local people don’t want to see that. I think it will irrevocably change the character of this area.
“There are, of course, very serious arguments about sustainability of development, both of the eco-town and of development that may affect our villages. Have we got the infrastructure to sustain development on the scale proposed? We all know about the problems on the A27, the need for a new Arundel bypass, pressures on our public services, pressures on water supplies in this part of the world, and so on.
“Additional housing must be sustainable, added without causing the kind of wreckage to our countryside and to our villages that we’ve all seen elsewhere.”
Mr Herbert added that the proposed eco-town at Ford would not help the situation or the development pressure on villages because the housing numbers might add to Arun’s target. He strongly criticised some promoters of the eco-town who mistakenly believed that new housing at Ford would prevent development at Aldingbourne.
The MP said: “This kind of beggar-my-neighbour approach is deeply unfriendly and unfair to neighbouring communities. We should all share a common concern to protect the rural character of our villages.”
For me - it's not just about Ford Eco Town, it's also about any kind of unsustainable development, wherever it is!
Housing targets for Arun are “unsustainable”
Arundel & South Downs MP Nick Herbert has said that the Government-imposed targets for house-building in Arun over the next 20 years are unsustainable and threaten the character of our villages and countryside.
Mr Herbert raised particular concerns about the proposed additional housing in the Five Villages area and at Angmering.
The MP was speaking at public meetings in Aldingbourne on Friday evening (23 January) and Angmering on Saturday morning (24 January) following the publication of a report by Arun District Council which sets out options for building thousands of new homes in the district by 2026.
The report, entitled ‘Arun Core Strategy – Options for Growth’, has already been considered by the Council’s Local Development Framework (LDF) Sub-Committee and will be issued for public consultation from 12 February to 26 March.
The report sets out the following options for development in Arun:
1) Sustainable urban extensions, with 2,500 homes to the north-west of Bognor Regis, 2,000 north of Littlehampton and 500 at Angmering, with a further 400-900 on greenfield sites on the edge of existing inland settlements;
2) An ‘eco-town’ of 5,000 homes at Ford, with a further 400-900 on greenfield sites elsewhere in the district;
3) Expansion of inland villages – 2,500 around Barnham, Eastergate and Westergate, 1,500 at Angmering and 1,500 north of Littlehampton, with a further 400-900 on greenfield sites elsewhere in the district.
The Council will choose one, or a combination, of the three options and produce a draft Core Strategy which will be subject to a further round of public consultation, before a final version is submitted to the Secretary of State. The Council has already indicated that it has a preference for Option 1, believing it to be more sustainable than Options 2 and 3.
The LDF process will help Arun to meet its obligation to build 11,300 new houses by 2026. This figure represents an increase of 2,000 on the original target of 9,300 set out in the draft South East Plan, prepared by the South East England Regional Assembly (SEERA).
Mr Herbert said: “We all know that there is a problem for young people who cannot get a foot on the property ladder, and think we accept that there will have to be some increase in housing. The debate will be about how much housing there should be and then about where you put it. But I think the overall levels of housing which are being proposed for the South East, for West Sussex and for Arun, are unsustainably high.
“We’ve already seen a situation in which the number of houses proposed for West Sussex over the next two decades has increased from 58,000 to more than 74,000. 10,000 of those have been absorbed in Shoreham but a significant amount of the extra housing that has been allocated through the Regional Assembly, and in the Government demanding that there should be more, will be built in Arun where the allocation has gone up from 9,300 to 11,300. And that puts our own local authority in a very difficult position. Extremely difficult decisions will have to be taken about where to allocate that housing.
“I think we all have to decide, as a West Sussex community, whether we want to turn our rural villages into a kind of suburban conurbation, because that could happen over the next 20 years if these decisions are got wrong. We will find that our villages lose their individual identities and developments will run into each other, much as they have done around Worthing. I suspect that local people don’t want to see that. I think it will irrevocably change the character of this area.
“There are, of course, very serious arguments about sustainability of development, both of the eco-town and of development that may affect our villages. Have we got the infrastructure to sustain development on the scale proposed? We all know about the problems on the A27, the need for a new Arundel bypass, pressures on our public services, pressures on water supplies in this part of the world, and so on.
“Additional housing must be sustainable, added without causing the kind of wreckage to our countryside and to our villages that we’ve all seen elsewhere.”
Mr Herbert added that the proposed eco-town at Ford would not help the situation or the development pressure on villages because the housing numbers might add to Arun’s target. He strongly criticised some promoters of the eco-town who mistakenly believed that new housing at Ford would prevent development at Aldingbourne.
The MP said: “This kind of beggar-my-neighbour approach is deeply unfriendly and unfair to neighbouring communities. We should all share a common concern to protect the rural character of our villages.”
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Hmmmmm - not such good news from the BARD judicial review
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7852546.stm
Not such happy news - we'll have to wait until we get to see the reasons behind this - but the judicial review was never going to be the end of the line.
Anyone got any more information on this?
Not such happy news - we'll have to wait until we get to see the reasons behind this - but the judicial review was never going to be the end of the line.
Anyone got any more information on this?
Judicial Review - Still waiting for that decision...!
Just heard from the Weston Front campaign
"The process is taking far longer than originally thought. Most of tomorrow (Tuesday) will be spent with the various QCs summing up their position. This may extend into Wednesday with the judge giving his oral opinion on Wednesday afternoon.
It is impossible to say which way it will go!"
Will put something here when we know!
"The process is taking far longer than originally thought. Most of tomorrow (Tuesday) will be spent with the various QCs summing up their position. This may extend into Wednesday with the judge giving his oral opinion on Wednesday afternoon.
It is impossible to say which way it will go!"
Will put something here when we know!
Thursday, 22 January 2009
Question Time
Just been watching failed Housing Minister, Caroline Flint on BBC Question Time - she came across as extremely inarticulate stealthy and bitch!
Shadow minister praises efforts to halt eco-town
Shadow housing minister Grant Shapps has backed residents in their fight against a Ford eco-town. Mr Shapps spent three hours talking to villagers about their campaign to stop the 5,000 home development.
He described the work of the Communities Against Ford Eco-Town group, parish councils and their MPs as extremely well organised. Click here for more...
He described the work of the Communities Against Ford Eco-Town group, parish councils and their MPs as extremely well organised. Click here for more...
Court challenge over eco-towns plan
Campaigners from the Shires are launching a High Court challenge over the Government's eco-towns project. They argue that there was a lack of proper consultation and the policy to build "environmentally-friendly" towns to meet housing needs is legally flawed.
The two-day challenge at London's High Court is being led by the Better Accessible Responsible Development (BARD) Campaign, which is opposed to 6,000 new homes being built near Long Marston, Warwickshire. Click here for more...
The two-day challenge at London's High Court is being led by the Better Accessible Responsible Development (BARD) Campaign, which is opposed to 6,000 new homes being built near Long Marston, Warwickshire. Click here for more...
Selection of shortlisted sites in spotlight
A judicial review into the process of selecting the proposed eco-town sites has been taking place in the High Court Yesterday (Wednesday, January 21) and today. It was launched by a protest group against one of the schemes in Warwickshire against the government's methods for compiling the shortlist of intended locations.
District council planning officer Neal Crowther told the sub-committee that the campaigners claimed the method of compiling the list was neither transparent nor democratic. "If they win, there would need to be complete re-starting of the eco-town process," he stated.
It's unknown when the case result will be announced.
District council planning officer Neal Crowther told the sub-committee that the campaigners claimed the method of compiling the list was neither transparent nor democratic. "If they win, there would need to be complete re-starting of the eco-town process," he stated.
It's unknown when the case result will be announced.
Friday, 9 January 2009
Bid to have eco-town withdrawn from shortlist
Two MPs this week renewed their call for Ford to be withdrawn from the shortlist of proposed eco-towns. Nick Gibb and Nick Herbert say the proposal is not a viable option.
They have sent a letter to Arun District Council explaining their views ahead of the re-opening of the council's special select committee which will consider the latest evidence about the scheme for the 5,000-home development. Click here for more...
They have sent a letter to Arun District Council explaining their views ahead of the re-opening of the council's special select committee which will consider the latest evidence about the scheme for the 5,000-home development. Click here for more...
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