So many new homes 'could foul up the sewage system'

Cllr Simon McDougall said he was worried about the impact of the effluent from the new housing estate on site six.

He said: "The sewage from that housing has to join the main sewer at one point or another and that's my worry.

"Southern Water will not commit to doing any work on the existing system. They are going to put in a new pump in Chichester Road but that seems to be it."

This could lead to worse flooding problems in stormy weather, he warned. Already, he stated, the Royal Oak pub at the junction of the A259 Chichester Road and North Bersted Street had been badly flooded several times.

He added: "It's not flooding on the estate that worries me. It's the flooding of the existing houses around it."

Cllr McDougall made his protest as Arun District Council's development control committee approved the largest section of the site six scheme to date.

He was the sole abstention as the other committee members granted planning permission to Persimmon Homes for 216 houses and flats on nine hectares on the north west corner of site six around Babsham Lane.

Arun planning officer Stephen Cantwell told the special meeting of the committee last Wednesday that the foul drainage system was a conventional one involving a new system of pipes below the proposed streets. These will connect with a new pump and from then go into the existing network.

He said Southern Water had no objection to the proposal but wanted to ensure that none of the housing was occupied until adequate foul sewer capacity was available off-site.

The Environment Agency had also agreed that drainage pipes on the new estate could overflow on to some of the roads in heavy storms, defined as a one-in-30- year event. But the roads would remain passable at those times,

Christopher Mead, an engineer who has worked on the proposals for Persimmon, said the drainage network had been designed to meet a higher standard. It would take groundwater away from Chichester Road to the estate's ponds. The committee's approval was subject to a series of 23 conditions.

These cover matters like details of fencing around the public open spaces between the housing, maintenance agreements for the drainage ponds and security measures for parking areas.

The development will be the first sight of the Bognor Regis urban area for visitors travelling by road from Chichester.

Most of the buildings will be two or 2.5 storeys high with some three storeys tall. They will range from one bedroom flats to five bedroom houses.

One in three will be affordable homes spread throughout the estate.

The development is arranged around an approximate grid system with a crescent on its southern boundary and a series of squares throughout.

Persimmon expects to start building work this September. Some 45 homes a year will be constructed. The rest of the site six area of 650 dwellings is being developed by Berkeley Homes.

It received planning permission in February from the district council for 100 dwellings. Berkeley's scheduled start date is this summer with about 45 homes being built each year.