‘Change in planning law needed to save Chichester’

I entirely agree with the sad reflections in Ruth Liney’s letter – see here

In my own area of Chichester, ‘Summersdale’, the White House Farm development of some 1,500 dwellings, threatens to destroy much of the wildlife currently protected by the ancient woodland status of Brandy Hole Copse.

The so called ‘Warrendell’ planning application, which dates from 1998, seeks to cram 21 dwellings on what was originally pastureland for Warren Farm’s herd of dairy cattle.

Since the demise of Warren Farm in 1975, the field became a glade full of trees, which supported a rich wildlife, including deer, foxes, owls, two species of woodpecker, heron, bats and song birds. In February all the trees were felled, save two subject of tree protection orders.

Mrs Liney is quite right – ‘I had hoped that CDC...would stand up to the Government with their unreasonable demands for more and more house building in every space they can be crammed into, but it seems it will only stop when every, once charming village is a mass of concrete’.

I call on Gillian Keegan MP to support her constituents and bring back what used to be called planning control.