Controversial West Sussex bungalows plan would see home demolished and new access road built
Plans to replace a house with three bungalows – and build a new onside access road – have been submitted in Lancing. Watch more of our videos on Shots! and live on Freeview channel 276
The proposed application would see the demolition of a single-dwelling house on the land to the north of 20 to 40 Firle Road. It is the latest resubmission of rejected plans to replace the property with two-storey houses.
At first nine properties were proposed, before it was reduced to seven. Although bungalows are now being proposed, the plans remain hugely controversial.
The proposed application would see the demolition of a single-dwelling house on the land to the north of 20 to 40 Firle Road. Photo: James Breckell Architects
More than 100 rejection letters have been submitted – including by the Sussex Wildlife Trust, which concluded that the application ‘does not show how it will acceptably compensate’ for the biodiversity and ecological value of the site. A further objection was submitted by ecologist Jessica Dikken, who stated that the developer-commissioned ecology surveys have ‘severely undervalued the ecology of the site’.
East Worthing and Shoreham MP Tim Loughton also objected. His letter read: “I am very well aware of the strength of feeling about this development. “I am very familiar with this site having visited on many occasions including when approached by constituents on previous similarly inappropriate planning applications.
“The area is in an already heavy developed residential area at the northern extremity on north Lancing, bordering on the important South Downs National Park. “The road is too narrow at 4.8 meters wide (Highways standard is 5.5 meters) to have a new road exit onto it and parking is already congested. “People[2] are regularly forced to drive on the pavement when meeting traffic coming in the opposite direction.
The road already has flooding down it when it rains and the steep access slope proposed makes that inevitable.” Mr Loughton noted that there ‘worryingly’ has been ‘several cases’ of parked lorries rolling down the hill and ‘crashing into properties’ on Firle Road – ‘such is the severity of the gradient’. He added: “This is just another accident waiting to happen.”
The updated planning statement – submitted by James Breckell Architects, on behalf of Mr Tom Middleton – noted that members of the design team in 2017 found it ‘extremely difficult to accept’ the refusal at committee and ‘dismissal at appeal’. The developers said they have had years to reflect, which has enabled a ‘positive and fruitful’ approach to the development of the site. A planning document read: “The density is reduced significantly from nine units to three units.
“The built area is reduced by 65 per cent in its gross internal area. Two-storey houses have been replaced with single-storey bungalows. “Every single minutia of advice gleaned from the committee report, inspectors decision and the 2022 committee report has been used to inform this fresh design.
“The length of the access road has been halved to reduce earth work to little more than a third of the original design. The result is a design that has used the advice given positively to bring about a benign yet architecturally rewarding group of individual and modest bungalows. “We thank the local authority and the planning inspectorate in helping to shape what we hope is a compatible development.”
This has done little to convince opposers. The North Lancing Action Group is leading calls for the application to be rejected once again. A spokesperson said: “Although the seven houses have been changed to three single-story dwellings, they will be elevated to almost double-story height and will be so huge in width that they will be bigger than two Firle Road properties and gardens put together.
“Just three will take up the entire row of nine Firle Road properties they will run parallel to, and they are now positioned much further south and closer to the cliff edge to swerve another objection from the South Downs National Park. “This means severe overlooking onto the Firle Road properties in their private bedrooms, which does not replicate North Lancing’s existing street scene, where all back gardens are facing and no row of houses has a road to both its immediate north and south.” The application is expected to be determined by February 2024.
To view the application, use the reference code AWDM/1473/23 at https://planning.adur-worthing.gov.uk/online-applications/search.do
References
- ^ Visit Shots! now (www.shotstv.com)
- ^ People (www.sussexexpress.co.uk)