Anger over Shripney caravan decision

They are considering mounting a judicial review of Arun District Council’s go-ahead for the 12 extra plots.

They are unhappy the council has allowed Shripney Gardens Caravan Park off Shripney Lane to increase by almost half its size in spite of its location next to a conservation area.

Twenty of the some 40 homeowners involved in the fight met Bognor Regis and Littlehampton MP Nick Gibb as their campaign gathered strength.

Mr Gibb said: “This is an important conservation area which we need to protect and preserve.”

He said any doubts about the process through which a planning decision had been made should cause the process to start again.

The campaigners have complained no orange planning application notices, which the district council displays at each potential development site, were present for the scheme.

They also want Arun to follow many other councils in the south east by informing neighbours of a possible scheme by letter.

Catherine Jolley, of Middleton Terrace, has lived on the boundary of the conservation area next to the caravan site with her husband and two children for the past eight years.

She said: “We feel strongly we have got a good case. We feel the council’s decision has not taken the views of local residents into account. We wanted to have some say in what is going on. We objected nine months before to a previous application to extend the caravan park, which Arun turned down because it is in a sensitive area.

“But we didn’t have the chance to do so this time around. We wonder what has changed in that time.

“The council have been completely insensitive to the feelings of local residents over this.

“The 12 extra caravan plots on top of the 26 already here will have huge implications for the young families who live around here. We believe it will create a lot of traffic movements.” Photographer Mrs Jolley, 46, claimed Arun’s planning procedures failed to keep residents informed about potential developments in their neighbourhoods.

She said the orange notices could be abused and the decision to publish the applications only in the West Sussex Gazette failed to take account of the reading habits of Bognor Regis residents.

An Arun spokeswoman said the most recent application for the 12 extra mobile homes was approved after a consultant for the caravan park had argued the need for the extra tourism accommodation outweighed the harm to the character and appearance of the area.

This had not been the case with the initial planning application for the additional homes which the council had refused.

This decision had been backed by a planning inspector at an appeal.