FORD ECO-TOWN: Ford could become the new Crawley

The claim was made by Cllr John Mortimer, a Labour member representing a Crawley division, who said the New Town Commission made a very good job of setting up Crawley in 1946.

"There is no reason why this eco-town could not be equally successful for this part of West Sussex," he declared.

But other members of the strategic environmental services select committee and a cabinet member strongly disagreed.

Cllr Clive Roberts, the cabinet member for strategic planning and highways, said members had heard about the development being parachuted in to Ford, but it was more like an H-bomb.

"It is unbelievable," he added. "I am totally opposed to this, and I will do everything I can."

Crawley was completely different - it was put into an area in the middle of Sussex which previously had nothing in it.

Committee chairman Cllr Phillip Coote said he thought the Government would like to see West Sussex concreted over.

This prime agricultural land at Ford would be needed to produce food in the future. "This is far too many houses, in the wrong place, without the infrastructure," he said.

Cllr Mortimer said the county council had done little or nothing to identify a site for a new settlement to meet demand for new housing.

"I think the timescale for this is very rushed, and if you rush things you can get it wrong," he admitted. "But I am not as anti this as Arun District Council is, because it is vital to go down that road somewhere."

Crawley was very successful and now economically vital to West Sussex. "You couldn't do without it," he told the committee.

But Neil Border, strategic policy manager in the chief executive's policy team, said the circumstances under which new towns were created were totally different to what we had today.

Crawley was a successful town, but the scale was enormous compared with the 5,000 houses proposed at Ford. "Crawley has an international airport on the doorstep, and far better road and rail communications," he added.

Cllr Mike Hall said the Government should be moving new development to the north of the country, to ease pressure in the south east - because most infrastructure there was already better.

Cllr Janet Mockridge said the whole thing was badly thought out.

"You can't cram that amount of housing into such a small place," she added.

"To compare it with Crawley, which was built with parks and recreational areas, is completely wrong. This will not be anything like Crawley, and will not be as humanly friendly."

Debate rages on. See next page.

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MAPTwo members of the public were invited to put the case for and against the eco-town at the select committee meeting.

Derek Waller, representing the Communites Against Ford Eco-town group - CAFE - said it was just a speculative proposal.

It would cause the coalescence of three small rural settlements, take up 35 hectares of prime agricultural land, and severely damage the planned regeneration of Littlehampton and Bognor Regis.

The area had severe road problems and congestion already, and there was little demand for affordable houses in this part of the county.

Harold Hall, a former leader of the county council, said the housing was badly needed - Arun had more than 4,000 families on the housing register.

The district also had the lowest wage levels in West Sussex, and a mortgage of 10 times the average Arun wage would be needed to buy a house there.

The site was essentially a brownfield one, and associated land had low landscape value.

"This is the most wonderful opportunity that exists, probably along the South Coast, for sustainable growth," said Mr Hall.

Councillors should get out of the old 'build under protest' approach.

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