ECO TOWN: Arun's own report on affordable housing would bear a look

It's one I raised as a councillor at Arun several years back, and that is Arun's own report on the need for affordable housing in the district.

That study, before neo-Nazis jump in with their inevitable claims, was around people who were born here and who live here and who will need a home but who have no prospect of being able to afford to buy, and for whom private rent is not an option.

The conclusion, around three years ago, was that by 2011 we need to have built for those people some 5,900 affordable homes.

At this time, the number of annual completions of affordable homes in Arun is between 50-100, nowhere near the required level to meet known, genuine need.

We have a housing waiting list of 4,000 now.

So what do people suggest for those local people who need a home, an affordable home?

A good home is an essential pre-requisite if you want children to grow up healthy, well-educated and law-abiding '“ it's not all down to bricks and mortar but that is the first need of every child and family.

I have no idea as to whether this Eco-Town proposal will work, but the level of abuse so far levelled has too much to do, it is obvious, with people not wanting it in their back garden.

Yes, we all say, sustainable building and development, marvellous.

But not here.

Well, every objector has to ask how their home got here?

They may like to consider the objections their homes may have raised.

Much of it was prime agricultural land.

Jan Cosgrove,

Longford Road,

Bognor Regis

NOTE: All letters must include a name and address which can be withheld by request.

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