Andrew Griffith MP: ‘Arun were warned of flood risks, now they must stop building’

In his letter to the joint Chief Executives and Leader of Arun District Council, Andrew Griffith highlights the events in Barnham in the past two weeks which have “illustrated in sharp relief what many of us have been saying for a long time” that too much development has overwhelmed local infrastructure.

The MP visited Barnham on Friday to see for himself the devastating impacts of foul water flooding and met with Southern Water executives on engineers on site.

Barnham has been dealing with issues caused by the overwhelming of road drainage and foul water infrastructure flooding homes. Local roads have become impassable and there has been consequential pollution from the sewerage system being inundated. Some residents have had to leave their homes because of rising sewage.

Andrew Griffith points to an inappropriate volume of housing development creating impermeable surfaces as the cause of the issues. This means the water runs off quickly and into the rifes which should act as natural drainage in normal conditions. This, says the MP is an issue which Arun District Council has been “repeatedly warned of” when preparing previous local plans.

The Arun Local Plan imposes more than 3,000 new houses in Barnham, Eastergate and Westergate in plans which were drawn up before Andrew Griffith became a Member of Parliament. Since becoming an MP, Mr Griffith has campaigned against unsustainable development, and highlighted the plight of Barnham, Eastergate and Westergate in House of Commons debates.

Today, Andrew Griffith is calling on Arun District Council to “impose an immediate moratorium on all new consents and additional developments in Barnham, Eastergate, Westergate and Aldingbourne” stating that “it is simply not acceptable that residents face such profound impacts because of Town Hall negligence.”

Andrew Griffith said:

“Enough is enough. We cannot build any more houses until a comprehensive report and remediation plans are published. I want Arun District Council to see for themselves the pressure that the local infrastructure is under and to halt any further development until such time that it is clear that there will not be further events like we have just witnessed in Barnham.”