®Planning appeal decision
Land at Stubcroft Farm, Church Road, East Wittering, PO20 8PU
the erection of residential dwellings (including affordable housing), associated highway and landscape works, open space and flexible retail and community floorspace (Use Classes E and F)
- Authority
- Chichester District Council
- Appeal type
- major · Planning Appeal
- Procedure
- Inquiry
- Development
- residential · Major dwellings
- Inspector
- Harwood A
Main issues, as the Inspector framed them
- the risks of flooding of the site due to coastal flooding on the basis of the Strategic Flood Risk Assessment (SFRA) modelling for future flood risk and whether a Sequential Test is required
- the effect of the proposals upon the highway network with respect to the level of financial contribution towards A27 mitigation
- The effect of the proposals on the supply of the best and most versatile agricultural land
What decided it
The failure to demonstrate the sites were safe from future coastal flood risk (requiring an unmet sequential test) combined with the unjustified loss of best and most versatile agricultural land outweighed the housing benefits and led to dismissal.
substantial benefits, particularly housing and affordable housing delivery, did not outweigh the harms arising from unresolved flood risk and loss of best and most versatile agricultural land, resulting in conflict with the development plan as a whole
Framework references: 11, 168, 226
Plan policies cited: Policy 2, Policy 4, LP Policy 42, LP Policy 8, LP Policy 9, LP Policy 48, LP Policy 45, LP Policy 34
The main issues and the deciding factor are read from the published letter by Town Planner Pro; the letter itself is the record. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Research, not advice.