Sample Letter To Worthing Council
(If possible please use your own words and don't use all the points, 4 is enough.
Send now to beat the NEW deadline of December 13, 2008)
To:
James Appleton
Assistant Director (Planning Services)
Your address
Portland House
Richmond Road
Worthing.
Date
Dear Sir.
Re: WB/04/00040/OUT. West Durrington Development.
Please accept this letter as my formal objection to the above application.
A1. First and foremost there must be a Public Inquiry to examine in full the impact this development will have on Durrington and the surrounding countryside.
1.
The extreme variability of rain fall amounts as witnessed by recent events, and believed to be caused by climate
change, will increase the likelihood of the Ferring Rife being overwhelmed
by the proposed 'SuDS' inability to cope with the run off from the
development as 1 in 100 year events are occurring at a higher frequency than the schemes proposed 20% uplift
2. The biodiversity impact of the revised application is still in conflict with objectives set by government for the maintenance, restoration and re-creation of woodland, habitats, meadows and hedgerows. It therefore follows I would expect this area, which contains rare and threatened species, to be afforded protection by careful management and improvement so it remains a haven for wildlife, and not
be destroyed by further urban sprawl.
3. The development is in conflict with Government objectives of reducing road traffic as required by the Traffic Reduction Act. Even at present levels, traffic is giving residents in Durrington grief; any further increase is completely out of the question.
4. The development will be visible from a popular public open space. From this vantage point at the National Trusts Highdown Hill, the setting of the proposed South Downs National Park will be spoiled by the
development and an important reason the Inspector at the South Downs National
Park Inquiry gave for not including historic land north of the development site.
5. Durrington will be blighted for over 5 years while building work
continues.
6. There will be a serious degradation of normal life while local feeder roads are rebuilt to lay high capacity water and sewage pipes.
7. Even with the present number of residents in Durrington, unemployment is at an unacceptable level. I note in the planning documents there is no provision to create jobs with the earning capacity to afford a mortgage on many of the planned properties.
8. Traffic figures fail to reflect accurately the impact trips associated with the approved new Tesco supermarket, St Barnabas Hospice and future development land on the application site will have.
9. It is reported that Southern Water are unable to guarantee a continuous water supply in a drought to the existing communities without restrictions or standpipes. How then are they able to supply an extra 850+ houses and infrastructure?
10. Despite the announcement that tree loss will be reduced along Titnore lane, there will nevertheless be serious fragmentation of the ancient wood and protected hedgerows as estate roads and services are driven through them. This fragmentation will render the woodland etc seriously degraded as wildlife corridors.
Finally I should be most grateful if you were able to acknowledge my letter and issue me with an objector reference. My e-mail address is:
Yours sincerely.
PS. If you want to e-mail the letter the address is: planning@worthing.gov.uk The Fax number is: 01903 207365.
Other points you might like to modify a letter with.
A) Titnore,
Goring, & Clapham Woods, west of Worthing, straddle the edge of the Sussex
coastal plain & the dip slope of the Downs. They lie across several
geologies (London clay, Reading beds, pebble beds, clay-with-flints, &
chalk), giving a variety of plant communities, with everywhere a dazzling
display of Bluebells, under Oak, Birch, Elm, Beech, & Maple. This woodland
gives the lie to the notion that Beech is the only real tree of the South Downs.
Clapham & Titnore Woods show the way our Downland woods would have looked
200 years ago, before the age of regimented plantations. Titnore & Goring
are one of only two ancient woodland complex's surviving on the coastal plain of
Sussex, & the other one (Binsted Woods at Arundel) is also threatened by
development (from the proposed Arundel A27 bypass). Percy Bysshe Shelley's
family long owned these woods, & his grandfather built the wacky yet beautiful Castle Goring (a delight of knotty Gothic & Palladian) whose whole
setting is to be encroached upon by this development. The woods are also SNCI's.
B) The Ancient woodland off Titnore lane supports a whole series of species which need that extensive woodland to survive. There are species such as Goshawk, Dormice, Purple Emperor & Silver-washed Fritillary butterfly, Yellow-legged Clearwing moth, & the Giant Ichneumon Wasp (Rhyssa persuasoria), all in a matrix of Bluebell & Wild Daffodil carpeted mixed coppice & plantation
C) Titnore & Goring Woods are one of only 2 large ancient woodland tracts surviving on the Coastal Plain of Sussex, east of Chichester, the other one being the Binsted Woods SNCI, south west of Arundel. For this reason alone they are worthy of preservation in toto, with their buffer zones, & within their landscape contexts. The rest of the Coastal Plain, including the Manhood Peninsular, retains only tiny ancient woodland fragments, like Hunston Coppice (& has, additionally, lost almost all other old semi-natural habitats on land, such as all its heathy commons & greens, & almost all of its old meadows).
D) Titnore & Goring Woods, & the adjacent & connected complex of Clapham Woods, has been severely damaged already by the anti-social & selfish actions of their landowner, over several decades. We have already had to suffer decades of painful erosion of this magnificent resource - with "hollowing out" of the woodland, the bulldozing & reseeding of wide rides, proposals for golf courses & rubbish dumps, & the bulldozing of coppice coups. The whole complex risks becoming severely fragmented, & the protective spirit of the law (using Tree Protection Orders, & so on) has been flouted.
D) With the extra traffic generated by all the development likely in West Durrington Titnore lane could still be widened and many trees will still be felled. If this happens the impact on the ecology and cultural history of the area would be disastrous. There are few if any comparable woodland on the coastal plain. It is an irreplaceable national asset. Not only would the loss of any woodland quality, by felling, fragmentation or urban encroachment be unacceptable in terms of its impact on the visual quality of the local landscape and it's continuity, but also the area is a vital part of the historical development of the landscape.
E) It is note worthy that parts of the woodland under threat can be traced back to the customals of the Manor of Haydon dating from 1321. In medieval times much of the surrounding area comprised the Deer park of Goring. It is therefore important to the historical heritage.
F)
As various surveys of the area have found, there is a rich mosaic of protected
animal and plant species. Titnore Wood has Dormice while Mitchell's Furzefield
is home to a very rare fly 'Leopoldius Brevirostra', which is only the tenth UK
habitat recorded. Then there is the presence of the White Admiral Butterfly,
which is noted for population fluctuations. All of this makes the retention of
the habitat provided by the woodland complex, and the surrounding buffer zone
from the urban sprawl, even more important.
G) The area is of high cultural history importance being the site of a Roman Villa and the most likely area for the Roman settlement and road.
H) Any widening and straightening of Titnore Lane together with the increase in traffic will have a disastrous impact on the ecology and cultural importance of the area.
I) From the vantage point of the National Trusts Highdown Hill the setting of the Sussex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty will ruined by the proposed widening and straightening of Titnore Lane.
J) Ancient woodland on the costal plain is very rare; Worthing is therefore fortunate to have an area of such size and extent. However this brings its responsibilities as the woodland supports a considerable variety of bird, mammal and plant species, many protected. The importance of preserving and enhancing the area is of national concern.
K) The proposed widening and straightening of Titnore Lane would have an unacceptable impact on the character of the Lane. It is widely accepted the Lane's origins are pre-historic and therefore part of our cultural history. This must be protected for future generations to behold
L) From the National Trusts property of Highdown Hill, Titnore Lane for the most, is hidden from view by the canopy provided by trees. Only the A27 to the north has an adverse impact on the scenic quality of the South Downs AONB. Felling of trees will remove the canopy, exposing the alien linear scar of the works to Titnore Lane, thus degrading the setting of the AONB.
M) The biodiversity impact of any development in the Titnore Lane area is surely in conflict with the objectives set by government for the maintenance, restoration and re-creation of woodland, habitats, meadows and hedgerows. It therefore follows we would hope this area, which contains rare and threatened species, to be afforded National Park status protection. Only then will it get careful management and improvement so it remains a haven for wildlife.
N) The area is of high cultural history importance being the site of a Roman Villa and the most likely area for the Roman settlement and road.
O) At a previous Public Inquiry into a proposed development in the woodland that would have made widening Titnore Lane necessary. The Inspector who held the Inquiry rejected such destruction of Titnore Lane by this passage (numbered G21 from his report published 13 February 1992):
'The
improvement to the Lane proposed by the appellants closely follows the line
which the highway authority have revealed to them.
Leaving aside any question of whether Titnore Lane has an open aspect,
it does have a pleasant rural character which derives very largely from
its winding nature and the trees and hedges which crowd closely along either
side. Their loss,
and replacement by an engineered alignment, would be damaging to the
rural character of the area, and would have a wider impact in that what is now a
sudden change from the spreading urban fabric of Worthing to a quite intense
rural ambience would be diminished. My
assessor advises me that, in his
view, the loss of woodland along
the lane would lead to the removal of specimen oaks of considerable
lichenological interest, and that
the improvements would be visually and environmentally damaging. (S7.18) I
accept his advise'.
P). As the revised West Durrington Development Application has now removed the Titnore lane widening etc, the Highway's Agency must be required to remove the now illegal 'A' designation of the Lane and reinstate the C37 designation.