DEVELOPERS Brookstream Properties have abandoned plans to convert the former Syngenta site at Fernhurst into a giant housing development. Chichester District Council was due to consider the application for 440 homes at its area development control committee on Wednesday morning, but the plans for the 11 hectre site were withdrawn by Brooksteam on Monday. Groups opposed to the plans have greeted the news with delight. The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, Sussex Wildlife Trust, South Downs Joint Committee, Fernhurst Parish Council and The Ramblers' Association were all unanimous in condemming the scheme. The developers had held a public meeting with district planners at Fernhurst Village Hall, just a few days before the plans were due to be considered, when they stressed the sustainable environmental credentials of the homes. Local residents had voiced their concerns about the impact of a large number of people coming into the village and the strain on utilities and transport. The plans were for 288 flats to be converted in the Highfield office block, a health and fitnesss club, 21 flats in the Pagoda Conference Centre, 120 new flats and 11 new houses. Planning officers had recommended a refusal of the scheme, but as Brookstream Properties, part of the larger Comer Homes group, owns the Syngenta site plus more land at Longfield and Bridgelands to the east, it is likely the company will present revised plans. Mark Lees, head of design for Brookstream, said the company had received the officers' report only a few days before it was due to go to the committee. He said: "From it we realised there were new issues that were brought to light we needed to address, so we have withdrawn the application and will resubmit at a later date." The Syngenta site was originally owned by ICI, then bought and developed as offices in the 1980s and the buildings opened by Margaret Thatcher. Comer Homes bought the site in 2003. Chairman of Fernhurst Parish Council planning committee Iain Brown said: "We are very pleased, but expect they will come forward with another application that hopefully will address the concerns raised in the report of the officers for Chichester District Council, which ran to 20- odd pages. We were very pleased to see that the officers echoed the feelings of the parish council." Concerns raised by the officers included the impact on the Sussex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the mix of housing (largely two bedroom properties), insufficient affordable housing for key workers and lack of transport options. The district as a whole has a shortfall of only 317 'units' over five years, under housing targets, yet 440 units were an oversupply, particularly when concentrated on one site.
