FORD ECO-TOWN: residents speak out in war on eco-town

The public get-together was the fifth in about three weeks.

Around 100 people turned up at the village hall to show their opposition to the scheme remained as strong as ever during the two-hour session.

They unanimously voted to oppose the planned development of 5,000 houses along with business premises and a school.

Thirza Jago (55), who has lived in Rodney Crescent in Ford for 20 years, told the Observer: "Ford is a totally inappropriate site for an eco-town to be built.

"It will take up good agricultural land, which we still need. The way things are going with food prices we will need to go back to producing more of our own food and relying less on food from around the world."

Ford Lane resident Bill Rice (80) explained: "I think the eco-town would be disastrous because it seems to me to break all the existing planning rules.

"If the eco-town is put in place, the finances just will not be there to create any additional infrastructure.

"The area around here will become gridlocked with traffic. It will make the existing situation ten times worse and will be the utmost folly."

Emma Attfield (33), of Fordwater Gardens, Yapton, has lived in Yapton for more than eight years and has two young children in the village primary school.

She stated: "The field behind our house is not involved in the eco-town. But the development is going to be so close to us it will involve all of us. I've come to the meeting because I wanted to know what is going on rather than sitting back and waiting."

The meeting was chaired by Ford Parish Council chairman Cllr Ron Field. He informed those present: "As a community, we can take one of two options.

"We can go home, close the door, shut the window and do nothing and hope Ford will not be selected for an eco-town.

"Or we can get together, make our views known and fight as hard as we can to try to prevent our village being turned into a concrete jungle.

"We can't afford to sit still for a moment. We want as many people as possible to write to government against the scheme, sign the petitions and join the march on June 7.

"We want as many people as we can to say 'this is what we are doing against the eco-town'."

Cllr Field revealed the scale of the workload involved with the opposition campaign.

Weekly meetings are being held with the two local MPs, Nick Herbert and Nick Gibb, Arun District Council officers and members and representatives of other community groups.

He said he had worn out two pairs of shoes in walking around Ford four times in the previous fortnight delivering posters, leaflets and car stickers.

He poured scorn on the enviromental credentials of the developers. One of the schemes which had become part of the eco-town had been around since 2004.

For all the talk of the new development being environmentally friendly, he added: "The promoters admit they will not be able to stop people living there having cars."

Members of the public at the meeting spoke about the loss of wildlife if the building goes ahead and the impact on village roads among other issues.

The community campaign is being co-ordinated by the Communities Against Ford Eco-Town (CAFE) group.

It held a further meeting at Walberton Pavilion on Tuesday. The eco-town is proposed for 890 acres around Ford Airfield. Some 70 per cent of the land is agricultural.

The idea is to build 5,000 homes, including affordable properties, as a leading example of environmentally friendly development. It is proposed to move Ford railway station 400m westwards and create a bus interchange with a new road to connect it with the A259.

Comments about the Ford proposals must be made to the government by June 30. A decision on the final ten eco-town sites is likely by October.

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