Another large Yapton housing development approved

Landlink Estates Limited applied to Arun District Council to build the homes west of Bilsham Road, Yapton, in January and its Planning Committee gave conditional approval on Wednesday (August 24).

Full permission is granted for 30 homes and outline permission (or permission in principle) for a further 110.

During Wednesday’s meeting, Boklok- a developer part owned by IKEA – was confirmed as the preferred buyer.

Anna Harper, planning manager at BoKlok, said: “All our homes are manufactured off site in state of the art factories, then delivered as completed modules.

“Our carbon emissions are reduced by using low carbon impact materials such as timber, which is our primary building material.”

Ms Harper said the homes would have sustainability features to reduce energy and water consumption, adding that the modular system speeds up building by 50 per cent when compared to traditional methods.

This could be Boklok’s third scheme in West Sussex – it already has permission for homes in Durrington and Littlehampton.

There were almost 200 objections to the scheme.

Yapton was expected to deliver at least 500 homes by 2031 to help meet district-wide housebuilding targets.

But residents say development outside of this allocation – like the one at Bilsham Road – has seen the village ‘double in size’.

Ward councillor Amanda Worne (LDem) said: “The whole village looks like one large building site and residents feel that we have taken on more than our fair share of housing to meet ADC shortfall.”

Planning officers explained that the council could lose an appeal if it refused the homes.

ADC can only demonstrate enough land to meet housing demand for just over two years – rather than the five years required by central government.

Yapton resident Nova Harris accused the council of ‘rolling over’ to developers.

“Yapton has given every inch of green space to over 1,300 houses where it was only earmarked for 500,” she said.

“Sadly Arun’s Planning Committee didn’t deem this worthy of fighting for, they believed they wouldn’t win at appeal so granted permission.”

But Ricky Bower (Con, East Preston) blamed developers.

“It is not Arun’s fault we are in this position,” he said, “It is purely because the developers are not building out at the rate they ought to be.”

Andrew Knight, a Bilsham Road resident who spoke at the meeting, said:

“This countryside is where we walk, we exercise, we talk, take our dogs, where we meet.

“Although there may appear to be short term benefits to this development by way of housing provision, the very substantial harm to the countryside, character and appearance of the area demonstrably outweighs any such benefits.”

There were also concerns over infrastructure, with West Sussex County Council saying it would ‘not be possible’ to expand secondary school provision.

WSCC also requested developer contributions to improve the A27.

Planning officers said they ‘considered the development very carefully’ but ultimately ‘did not feel they could object’.

The committee was divided on the application with the chairman using his casting vote to approve it.