FORD ECO-TOWN: Yapton traders 'could be put out of business'

The initial plans for the 5,000 home development contain space for up to 10,613 sq of retail floorspace.

This is almost twice the size of the current Morrisons store in Bognor Regis town centre where retailers would also be hit from the new competition.

Arun District Council chief executive Ian Sumnall made the claim at the second recent meeting of the eco-town select committee held to examine the latest evidence about the major proposals.

He said: "There is great evidence of the fragility of Bognor town centre. That showed in the work done for the recent Asda application.

"The shopping changes being seen in Bognor and Littlehampton are being seen in all towns.

"But they have a greater emphasis there because you only have a 180 degree catchment area for shoppers.

"If you have an alternative food retailer sited in the eco-town development, it will draw people there. I think it will have a retail impact.

"You can bet your bottom dollar that the developers will want to talk to one of the major food retailers.

"They will want to do it.

"They will want to see people travelling to the store there because they will want to make the eco-town viable.

"If it's a series of convenience shops or neighbourhood shops in the eco-town, then the impact on the towns of Bognor and Littlehampton will not be so great.

"But the trouble with those stores is that you have got them in Yapton anyway.

"How's that going to leave Yapton, which is a reasonable centre but does not trade very well?"

Attracting shoppers to new outlets by car also badly damaged the sustainability credentials of the eco-town, he stated.

The select committee's members agreed at last Thursday'smeeting to submit a list of recommendations to all councillors on February 18 to form Arun's final response to the government about the eco-town idea.

These included the existing severe congestion on roads surrounding Ford and the lack of proposed improvements to cope with the eco-town's 10,000-plus residents.

Cllr Dr James Walsh (Littlehampton Beach) said government funding to ease A27 bottlenecks at Chichester, Arundel and Worthing seemed to be slipping further away.

"That funding could well be diverted. Therefore, any development anywhere in the Arun district is likely to add an unacceptable burden to the A27 unless the infrastructure is provided first," he demanded.

The fact initial hopes for a science park had been downgraded with many eco-town residents expected to work from home, to damage hopes of raising the skills level of the district's residents was another issue put forward by the select committee as a potential objection.

The eco-town's effect on a landscape which is mainly rural and on the character of the surrounding villages was raised as well along with severe criticism of the plans to provide energy from waste.

Arun's comments have to be made to the government by March 6.

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