Yapton loses fight to halt housing on industrial estate

A planning inspector this weekapproved proposals for 50 homes to be built on Yapton Industrial Estate in Bilsham Road.

Ms Jill Kingaby said the site should be considered favourably for housing, though it was in the countryside and outside Yapton's development boundary.

But Yapton Parish Council planning committee chairman Cllr Andrew Faulkner said: "It's rather sad really. It's another bit of Yapton which is going and it extends the southern flank of the village into the countryside."

Miss Kingaby announced her decision just over a month after she chaired a public inquiry after an appeal by Gladedale Group Ltd against Arun District Council's refusal to grant planning permission for the housing.

Arun ruled the scheme was in a rural area, poorly designed and the loss of jobs could not be justified among its nine reasons for rejecting the application. Ms Kingaby said she judged the housing to be suitable against four criteria.

These were whether the housing would be high quality, whether the site helped to meet the government's target for a five-year supply of housing land, if enough public open space was provided for the homes' occupiers and if highway safety along Bilsham Road was maintained.

"The scheme would add another small housing estate to Yapton's southern side," said Ms Kingaby.

Studies by Gladedale, using recognised methods of calculating traffic flows, showed that the number of vehicles generated by the proposed housing would not overload the surrounding road network.

Measures proposed by Gladedale to widen footpaths along Bilsham Road and install new bus shelters and bus stop clearways would also encourage people away from their cars, she added.

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