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Issue: 177
Bognor Regis Post ISSN 2397-8724
BognorRegisPost Your FREE weekly independent newspaper
Friday, September 20, 2019
Housing ban bid approved LARGE housing schemes around Bognor Regis should be stopped, the government is to be told. A halt should be called to the developments of hundreds of homes until the full impact on the coastal plain of rising seas and climate change was known, Arun district councillors agreed this week. THey also instructed Nigel Lynn, their chief executive, to write to the appropriate government minister to inform him or her of the decision and to seek a meeting to discuss it. THe agreed motion by Cllr Tony Dixon (I, Aldwick E) stated: "THe district is uniquely unsuitable for large-scale development because it is particularly vulnerable to the risks arising from climate change, in addition to every type of flooding that already occurs in this country. "Against this background, this council believes that the local plan does not adequately protect new and existing communities from increasing flood risk. THerefore, we have no confidence in the local plan." Two Lib Dem amendments which related to rising sea levels and the desire to tie in with the government's declaration of a climate emergency were accepted by Cllr Dixon into the approved motion. It was backed by 24 votes to 18, with five abstentions after a heated debate. Cllr Dixon said the Bognor Regis area could be submerged by the rising sea as it was in pre-historic times. "THe coastal plain was under the sea
once. It could be again," he said. THe decision calls into the question the progress of the housing plans for some 1,000 homes around Pagham which Arun has approved in outline form as well as the some 3,000 homes destined for Barnham, Eastergate and Westergate. Cllr Isabel THurston (G, Barnham) said the world faced a climate emergency and the UK could not continue with the policy of meeting government targets for housing. "Everything needs to change but we are carrying on as if we have all the time in the world to change them," she warned. Cllr David Huntley (I, Pagham) said: "We need houses but we don't need houses built like this. It's a free for all. Half the village will be under the sea in a one in 200 year event (of flooding)." Cllr Terry Chapman (C, East Preston) said he opposed the motion. "I absolutely believe global warming is real and it's driven by population growth. THere's no doubt about that," he said. "Our population is growing and that's why we are building houses. We are trying to build them in a suitable way. We do know the risk of building on a flood plain." Cllr Paul Dendle (C, Arundel) said: "I'm an environmentalist at heart but I can't support this motion because it does not address the needs of young people in the district. It's basically saying let's shut the door on any more housing." Cllr Shaun Gunner (C, Rustington E) said: "THis is another way of saying you don't want houses where you live."
st ge per r La spa s p ' ea ew hi Ar E N ders E a FR Re www.bognorregispost.co.uk See page 3 XX
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