Stop notice issued to Bognor Regis landowner due to alleged clearing of 'wildlife rich habitat'

The chair of ADC’s planning committee, Terence Chapman (Con, East Preston) confirmed that the owner of a parcel of land to the east of Heath Place, Bersted, was issued with a ‘temporary stop notice’.

“Land at Heath Place is subject to an active enforcement investigation and the owners of the site have been served with a temporary stop notice. Further enforcement action is currently under consideration,” said Mr Chapman.

He was responding to a question from a member of the public who fears that ADC is seen as a ‘soft touch’ by developers when it comes to protected species.

The member of the public claimed that ‘wildlife rich habitat’ was cleared from the land without the proper permissions in place.

Planning permission was previously granted at the site -which lies next to Ash Grove Business Park – for a 37,000 square metre light industrial building and parking for 149 cars.

But this has since expired and a number of separate planning applications were later refused.

The land has now been sold subject to contract according to Horsham-based estate agents Chesworths.

Mr Chapman said that planning legislation ‘does not deal with all circumstances and eventualities’.

“So, for example if someone decides to undertake works in advance of applying for planning permission and those works do not require permission then any impact upon protected species is governed by other legislation, for which other organisations, such as Sussex Police take the lead,” he said.

“When we do receive an application for planning permission we check to see if certain ecological information is required for that application to be valid.”

Mr Chapman added that the council ‘can only act within the law and powers that it has’.

In his answer to a separate question on planning enforcement from an Angmering parish councillor, Mr Chapman confirmed that the planning department was experiencing ‘staff vacancies’ and ‘recruitment difficulties’.

The council hired consultants in July to work on ‘higher priority’ compliance cases and has officers available to address compliance concerns at major developments on ‘strategic sites’.