Goring
March 23rd, 2022Council to go to High Court to support community fight against green gap housing
Worthing Borough Council is leading the community fight to save Goring Gap by taking the case to the High Court.The Council has instructed a barrister to develop a legal challenge to the Planning Inspectorate’s decision to allow hundreds of homes to be built at Chatsmore Farm.
Councillors had rejected a planning application by the developer Persimmon for permission to build 475 homes on the land between the borders of Ferring and Goring.
They agreed that the area was an important green gap and that development would adversely affect the setting of the South Downs National Park and add to traffic congestion.
But despite a government-appointed planning inspector clearly indicating to the Council that it was right to protect the space from development in its Local Plan for the area, a different inspector overturned the Council’s decision on appeal and said the homes could be built.
Members of the community are meeting at Chatsmore Farm at 3pm on Friday (25 March) to show their unity against the planned development.
Cllr Kevin Jenkins, the Leader of Worthing Borough Council, has written to Housing Secretary Michael Gove calling for the Government to step in and block the development.
He said: “It cannot be right that one planning inspector can simply ignore the evidence and decision of another.
“Chatsmore Farm is a vital green lung for Worthing and no one here - not the Council, not the opposition, not local residents - wants to see it built upon.
“We will not stand by and allow our few remaining green gaps to be concreted over in a dash to meet arbitrary, unsustainable housing targets imposed on us by Whitehall.
“I hope people will join me with Sir Peter Bottomley at 3pm on Friday at Chatsmore Farm to show our opposition to this decision.”
Raising the issue in the House of Commons, Worthing West MP Sir Peter Bottomley said developer Persimmon was “greedily trying to fill in the strategic green gap”.
Calling for the Prime Minister to review the case, Sir Peter said the appeal ruling “ran roughshod” over the responsibilities of councils to make planning decisions.
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March 23rd, 2022
Outcry as Secretary of State overrules environmentally damaging Chatsmore Farm Decision
Leader of Worthing Borough Council, Cllr Kevin Jenkins has written to The Rt Hon Michael Gove MPSecretary of State for Levelling Up, to call into question the decision to override the locally refused planning application to build new homes at Chatsmore Farm.
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February 28th, 2022
Worthing Borough Council will fight Goring Gap housing decision
Worthing Borough Council has vowed to continue its fight to protect the green space at Goring Gap after its decision to reject an application for new housing was overruled.Read More
February 11th, 2022
INSPECTOR BACKS COUNCIL FIGHT TO PROTECT VITAL GREEN SPACES
Efforts to protect the green spaces that border Worthing have been strengthened by the support of a government inspector, a report says.Two open spaces known as the Goring Gap to the west of the town and Brooklands in the east are considered as crucial to protect the integrity of the community and prevent urban sprawl.
The report to members of Worthing Borough Council’s Joint Strategic Committee (JSC) says initial feedback from a Local Plan Inspector has strongly indicated he accepts the argument that the sites should remain undeveloped and describes this as ‘a good news story’.
Members of the JSC heard although his final report is awaited the inspector had made a strong inference that Local Green Gap (LGG) status should be awarded to both Chatsmore Farm and the Goring-Ferring Gap and that an even stronger protection Local Green Space (LGS) should be applied at Brooklands.
The timing of the inspector’s intervention was also described as very helpful coming at the time an appeal hearing against the Council’s decision to refuse a plan by Persimmon to build 475 homes at Chatsmore, north west of Goring railway station, was being heard.
A decision on that appeal is expected later this year but the Council is hoping the Local Plan inspector’s indications will work in favour of continued refusal.
Leader of Worthing Borough Council, Cllr Kevin Jenkins, said, ‘I welcome this report and the strong indications that all our hard work to produce a robust Local Plan to both protect our vital open spaces while creating opportunities for much-needed new homes on brownfield site within our urban areas is being recognised.
‘We will continue to fight tooth and nail against any attempt to fill in these much needed open spaces and we will do so armed with the tremendous amount of work and expertise that have gone into creating this Local Plan.
‘I look forward to the council being in a position to formally adopt this Local Plan later in the year once the inspector's report is published so that we get vital protection for these green spaces.’
Despite the Council being under pressure to meet government-backed house building targets the report says the inspector has indicated he wants to see proposals to allow 60 homes to be built at Titnore Lane removed from the Local Plan. The report accepts this intervention and says the number of homes can be made up by slightly increasing density at a number of brownfield sites.
The full and final report from the inspector on the Worthing Local Plan is expected in the Spring
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