Public inquiry begins in the traveller pitch refusal.

A public inquiry into Chichester District Council’s refusal of an application to set up 22 gypsy/traveller pitches in Sidlesham has been reconvened.

The retrospective application to add to the pitches already set up at Melita Nursery, in Chalk Lane, was given the thumbs-down in May 2025 – a decision that was then appealed by applicant MW Goddard.

After a postponement in December and a cancellation in February, it was third time lucky on Monday (July 6), when the inquiry opened with a hearing at Chichester College.

A number of issues were covered, not least of which were the need for gypsy/traveller sites in the district and whether those occupying the Melita Nursery site were even gypsies or travellers.

A council representative said the authority had a 4.42-year supply of land for such sites. The requirement is five years. They added that, in April 2024, there was an unmet need of 95 pitches, though this has fallen to three since then due to the large number of sites that have been delivered.

One point which the council could not answer centred around the definition of a traveller.

The hearing was told that there are 51 households in Chichester which didn’t meet the requirements under the previous definition. But the Government made a number of changes to that in December 2024.

The council’s representative did not know how many of those families would meet the new definition.

During a round-table discussion, questions were asked about whether people living on the Melita Nursery site were actually travellers, or if the mobile homes were being rented by the general public. 

This is something that the council could take action over for breach of planning conditions – though there is no way to know if people are genuine travellers, unless they choose to share that information.

A statement from Sidlesham Parish Council said: “There is a need for additional traveller accommodation which, somewhat ironically, is not being met by the site at the moment given that many, and probably most, of the residents of the unauthorised mobile homes and caravans are not travellers at all and are excluding travelling families from using a site which has a perfectly reasonable planning permission.”

The Parish Council also raised concerns that difficulties created on the site by over-development could have a knock-on effect in other parts of the local community and ‘contribute to a deterioration in community relations’.

A representative reported an increase in crime in the area – though the behaviour of people living on the site was not relevant to the inquiry.

The hearings will continue all week, with an extra day reserved on July 13, should it be needed.

To view the application, log on to publicaccess.chichester.gov.uk and search for 00814/FUL.

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