Proposal for the Frosts Cars site in Brighton Road

Adur District Council’s Planning Committee has turned down a second major housing and commercial development on a key site in Shoreham in less than a month.

The Council’s planning committee rejected the application by developer Shoreham Brighton Road Limited to turn the Frosts4cars.co.uk site in Brighton Road into a mixture of 80 one-bedroom and 103 two-bedroom apartments and business space.

It comes after proposals to provide 21 townhouses and 24 flats on the nearby Howard Kent site were rejected by the Council earlier this month.

The Frosts application was rejected because of the scale of the nine-storey development, the added pressure it would have placed on the existing infrastructure and parking, as well as serious concerns over drainage.

Residents had also voiced their concerns about the impact on Shoreham’s infrastructure during the consultation over the plans.

Council on problems development would cause

Cllr Steve Neocleous, Adur District Council’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Strategic Planning, said: “While there is a real need for more housing in Adur, and in particular affordable housing, this has to be done sensibly. Each development is looked at on an individual basis and this one was rejected due to its height, scale and density.

“Infrastructure concerns clearly played a part, too and rightly so. In addition, the provision for parking with the development was thought likely to cause additional problems on parking in the surrounding area, although this is a tricky thing to balance if we are to drive  down the reliance on the car.

“We will continue to work with and put pressure on West Sussex County Council to ensure that, moving forward, it helps us to improve the area’s infrastructure, as well as trying to ensure that enough thought goes into providing enough school places and GP/Dentist options in light of any potential future plans for development in the Western Harbour Arm.”

Southern Water also came under fire at the planning committee meeting over the failure of the existing sewage system to cope with demand.

Cllr Neocleous added: “We already have a struggling sewage system that has been found wanting on several occasions and there are legitimate concerns about the ability for the existing system to be able to cope with increased housing. We will continue to put pressure on Southern Water to improve this as a matter of urgency.”