Whitehouse Farm 1,600-home traffic fears for Lavant

Lavant Parish Council was warned on Tuesday (February 10) of the impact of the Whitehouse Farm development – west of Chichester.

“The whole point is that it’s such a huge development, we’re talking about 1,500 to 2,000 houses there eventually,” Chichester north’s county councillor Jeremy Hunt told them.

“The impact of traffic is going to be quite huge. It does have a knock-on effect to Lavant.”

There was confusion at the meeting, as the parish had been sent the application with a Lavant area code on it, however the parish believes it is in fact in the Chichester city boundary – with all other references to the application having a Chichester code on them.

Councillor Roger Benson compared the 750-home scheme to a recent win for Lavant, when it prevented 92 homes getting 
built on the daffodil field that separates Chichester and Lavant along the A286.

“The daffodil field is totally minor compared to things like this that drop out of the sky,” he said, slamming the ‘scandal’ of the number of green fields around Chichester that could be built on.

However, Cllr Hunt defended the district council.

I think the planners have been put in a difficult place,” he said. “I don’t think you can blame 
them entirely.”

The housing site was also discussed at Chichester City Council’s planning committee the following day, read a report here.