Southwick development for 100 per cent affordable housing approved

Adur District Council partnered with a developer to build 50 new flats in two new blocks and refurbished existing buildings in Albion Street.

The scheme was set to deliver 30 per cent affordable housing, but after the developer pulled out the council has made revisions.

Five extra flats will be provided in the new blocks bringing the total to 55 and the entire development will be solely for affordable housing.

Permission was granted by Adur’s planning committee last Monday (March 9).

In order to find room for the extra flats, most of which are on the ground floor, the number of proposed parking spaces has been reduced from 50 to 31.

This reduction was the main issue voiced by councillors, but these concerns were overridden by the need for more affordable units.

Officers confirmed that West Sussex County Council as the highways authority had not objected to the number of spaces provided.

Joss Loader (Ind, Marine) said: “I think the parking concerns are valid but at the end of the day people’s desire for a home, a decent family home, overrides the understandable requirement for a parking space. If it’s a straight choice there’s no contest.”

Stephen Chipp (Con, Southwick Green) expressed some frustration that parking continued to be such a large part of debates on planning applications.

He explained: “We all need to get away from use of cars and vehicles and yet every time we come to planning we are having long discussions about the number of car parking spaces they need. It’s a main road, there’s a bus stop, the train station is just around the corner. It’s got good public access links. To me it’s a no brainer.”

Akin Akinyebo, head of housing at the council, said there were 42 households currently in temporary accommodation, with 22 of these families.

He added: “This will be a very useful development to move people out of temporary accommodation into good social housing.

“The extra five units will provide homes for five extra households.”