Court bid to block 700 new homes in Worthing (From The Argus)
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Court bid to block 700 new homes in Worthing
2:40pm Monday 21st November 2011 in News By Neil Vowles
Campaigners are to go to the High Court to try to block plans for 700 homes in their neighbourhood.
Protesters say they are to apply for a judicial review into the decision of Worthing Borough Council to allow the homes to be built in West Durrington.
It means that a final decision on the long-mooted development could be made by a High Court judge.
Members of residents’ groups say concerns over flooding of the area were not properly addressed during the planning process and are now seeking to challenge the controversial decision to grant planning permission.
In October the council’s planning committee voted through the plans to build 700 homes on land to the north of Fulbeck Avenue in Durrington, Worthing, with the potential for an extra 300 homes in the future.
John Hughes, the organiser of the Don’t Overdevelop Durrington Campaign, said: “We are very concerned that when the development is finished the groundwater which rises in these fields at the moment will travel further south.”
Paul Deacon, the chairman of the Worthing Downlanders, said: “With an application of this scale, one would have imagined that the council would have taken care to ensure that proceedings were conducted in a manner beyond reproach.
“But at every stage of the process, from the incorrect email link for people wishing to speak and the inadequate size of the meeting room right through to the farcical confusion and obfuscation over the voting, it succeeded only in casting a shadow over its own reputation.”
The group is to meet to confirm it will mount a legal challenge.
A Worthing Borough Council spokeswoman said: “The voting to determine the planning application for West Durrington was transparent and carried out in accordance with the council’s constitution.”
For more on this story see today's Argus.
Comments(3)
wbciscorrupt
says...
5:16pm Mon 21 Nov 11
The Brown Envelopes must have been flying that night!
rolivan
says...
6:05pm Mon 21 Nov 11
Sudseax says...
4:30pm Mon 21 Nov 11
As well as the problems documented in the article, there was an arbitrary limit on the speakers against the proposal and they were asked to decide among themselves who would speak and who would not. What other committee of enquiry would leave it to the witnesses to make decisions about what information was presented?
A number of key issues didn’t get aired. The vote at the end was a shambles. After two and half hours of evidence some councillors made absolutely zero contribution to the meeting other than to stick their hands up, and some of them half-heartedly at that. Those present had some right to know on what basis the councillors had reached their decisions. It’s not surprising there were angry scenes.
The conclusion that many have come to was that it had all been decided before the meeting and the meeting was a bureaucratic box ticking exercise. People in the community who would have liked a voice were excluded. Those councillors who had a voice and didn’t use it failed any test of democratic process.