Striving for sensible planning and development policies
The National Park is both a threat and a victory. The victory is for conservation and ‘green policies’, which will protect and cherish – even more than before – the wonderful downland of West Sussex.
The threat is just as real, although it is less understood. It results from the relentless Housing Development Pressure on “The Strip”, lying between Emsworth and Chichester, which is neither in the National Park nor in the Chichester Harbour Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, but which is home to most of the people who live in the County Council’s Electoral Division of The Bourne.
The communities of Southbourne, parts of Chidham and Westbourne – and their surrounding hamlets – are being targetted by developers. They need a correspondingly louder and more focussed effort to protect them from developers, who have become over-aggressive.
I undertake to speak up in support of local people who feel under threat from over development. I will support the Chichester District Councillors who carry the weighty responsibility for Development Control, and do my best to make local opinion prevail over remote faceless planners.
