Residents raise concerns for planned 350 home development in Pagham, following dramatic floods

Plans for the development were submitted earlier this week under the reference P/153/21/RES and comprise a reserved matters application for 350 homes on land south of Summer Lane and West of Pagham Road, both of which were effected by today’s floods. Accommodations for public open space, play space, drainage, parking, and landscape works are also included in the plans.

“It’s not great around here. This isn’t the first time we’ve been flooded. My biggest concern is what the developers are planning with these 350 homes,” said Pagham resident Jane Weston. “If floods like this are happening with fields, which are absorbing some of the water , then what will happen when it’s all concreted over with buildings and it has nowhere to go?”

Plans for the 350 homes were submitted after developers were granted access to the land in 2018, having submitted plans to build a mixed use development of up to 400 homes and a 70 bedroom care home. Residents fought hard to resist the decision, and the application page, filed under reference

P/140/16/OUT, is full of residents citing many of the same issues as Jane; some as recently as March this year.

"The high water table and the flat landscape, together with the fact that the land is low lying and only marginally above sea levels leads to surface water flooding on many parts of the land proposed for these developments,” reads one letter, dated September 2018.

"With changing climatic conditions now being observed this will only increase.”