I was invited to attend a meeting with a small group of Southwick residents concerned about the plans for the old Howard Kent site near to the lighthouse at Shoreham Harbour. In the event that small group swelled to around 140 at the meeting at Shoreham College and clearly there is a lot of opposition to the plans which I share. For your information the planning application number is AWDM/1979/17 and the public consultation is open until February 16th though as I said at the meeting I have grave doubts that the application has any chance of going ahead in anything like its present form but local people do need to object all the same.
The application involves 136 flats in a high density and overpoweringly tall series of blocks which completely dwarfs the lighthouse and blocks sea views of a number of the terraced houses on the Brighton Road. In my view it just looks and feels horrible and I will certainly be lodging my objections though the developers have not given me any details of the plans and have only just asked for a meeting since this public meeting was arranged. It is difficult to see how many of the flats would be genuinely affordable to local people where we currently have over 800 people on the council waiting list in Adur. In any case such a development is not necessarily needed to contribute towards the housing targets specified in the Adur Local Plan which I have mentioned in the piece on West Sompting.
Congratulations to Andy Harvey of the Kingston Beach Resident’s Association for organising the meeting and sparking such strong interest amongst my local constituents. You can see their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/KingstonBeachResidentsAssociation