Fresh bid to build sheltered housing

McCarthy and Stone wants to create a development of 36 of the apartments on the site of 262 Hawthorn Road.

The size of the scheme has been reduced from 44 apartments in the company's earlier proposal.

This was rejected by Arun District Council last May. A planning inspector backed the council's decision three months later.

The inspector said two elements of the development would extend further forward than the existing derelict house to significantly detract from the area's character and appearance.

Gian Bendinelli, a senior planning associate at McCarthy and Stone's planning agent, said a revised layout had been created in response to the inspector's concerns.

He states, in a letter with the latest planning application, that the new building is set at a greater distance from the West Meads Drive boundary than the previous scheme.

The two elements upon which the inspector commented at the meeting point of West Meads Drive/ Hawthorn Road had been redesigned as well as set considerably further from the boundaries.

A 2.5 storey building on the corner replaced on three storeys high.

A '˜link' on the Hawthorn Road elevation had also been omitted. The effect was to reduce the impact of the building along this frontage, he comments.

But he said the inspector had backed the principle of flats being built on the site and agreed the traffic they generated would not cause a highway danger.