Plans for up to 1,250 homes near Barnham have been approved by Arun District Council.
The plans were approved by the council’s planning committee at its special meeting to deal with the applications on Monday, July 21.
This included outline permission for a mixed use development in between Barnham, Eastergate and Westergate for up to 1,250 homes, and detailed permission for realignment of part of the A29, including a bridge of the nearby rail line.
The development will include a new three form primary school with nursery and SEND provision, a 60 bed care home, retail and commercial space, 40 hectares of public open space, an Aldingbourne community building, and 15 per cent affordable housing.
It will also include up to 20 hectares of land to Lidsey Rife Parklands, including a cricket pitch and pavilion, as well as contributions to increasing local services such as fire and rescue, police, libraries, and a contribution to Croft Surgery.
The plans cover a section of a strategic site allocated under the Arun Local Plan 2018, for 2,300 homes by 2031 and 3,000 homes in total.
The developers will have to pay the council around £35 million as part of a section 106 agreement between the two.
An agent from the Church Commissioners for England on behalf of the applicant, Southern Consortium, told the committee the total cost of the infrastructure contribution would be around £115million, or £92,000 per home.
The agent also noted that the railway bridge would be completed before 1,100 occupants on the development, with one form primary entry to be open before 600 occupants.
Planning committee chair Simon McDougall (Lab, Pevensey) said the A29 realignment is a ‘critical piece of infrastructure’, saying the development would go towards Arun’s obligation to the government’s plans to build 1.5 million homes by 2029.
Vice-chair Sue Wallsgrove (Green, Barnham) said it was a ‘shame’ that grade 1 land was being built on for the development, but that the plans ‘had to come forward’.
West Sussex County Council education submitted a holding objection to the plans over the cost of the secondary school transport for potential new students.
The current contribution according to Arun’s officers is £2.7million for use over 10 years, down from an initial calculation of £5.1million being needed, with officers saying affordable housing would need to be cut if this amount was not lowered.
A speaker from WSCC told the committee that without changes to the funding contributions there were no other sources of funding, and this would put a ‘greater’ tax burden on tax payers.
Aldingbourne, Walberton, and Barnham and Eastergate Parish councils objected to the plans, with 33 objections received from Arun residents, around overdevelopment, flooding, and lack of local services.
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