There is a line around Ferring in Arun Council’s Development Plan – that defines the ‘built up area’. Any development that is proposed for outside this area is scrutinised particularly carefully – there is, rightly, a premium on protecting agricultural land and other open spaces. But for those of us who live inside that line, a ‘built up’ area is the last thing we want. It is what most of us came here to get away from.

The great charms of Ferring are not just the farmland and downland north of Littlehampton Road, or the old flint buildings of the village nucleus, or the undeveloped seafront. They also include the openness of the layout of the 20^th century housing – the long gardens, the wide grass verges, and the large plots on which most of the houses have been built. A typical example is Ferringham Lane, south of the Brook Lane junction and round to West Drive. This was, in Victorian times (and long before) the lane from the village down to the cornfields of the manor farm and the meadows along the lower Rife. When the houses were built they were set well back from the road, with long front gardens, comfortable spaces between them and old trees or wide verges in front. The ‘Tudor Close’ converted from an old stone barn, conformed, with its thatched roof, front garden, and generous parking area to the rear, to this open and relaxed atmosphere.

All this is threatened by the increasing practice of ‘in-filling’, cramming in an extra house (or more) onto a plot intended for one. The most dramatic attempt recently was at The Strand, where 30 flats were to replace 6 bungalows. Another,  on a smaller scale, in the same part of Ferring, has been the proposal to build four (now three) houses in the Tudor Close car park. Now there is an application to build a chalet bungalow in the front garden of a property on the other side of the road (FG 30/02, comments required by 2 May).

The problem of in-filling is not just one of visual appeal and atmosphere – there are real practical problems of overburdening the physical infrastructure intended for a much smaller and less developed area. The roads are narrow, increasingly congested with parked vehicles, they have no lighting. Many of the roads are unadopted – their surfaces are wearing out. Everywhere, the surface-water drainage is problematic, and every extra square yard of concrete increases the danger of flooding.  There are also pressures on the social infrastructure – our General Practitioners were strongly opposed to the 30 flats for this reason.

So, isn’t it about time we and our Councillors started to oppose the in-filling? This website will bring to your attention, week by week, the planning applications that seem to fall into this category – and the dates by which comments have to be made to the Head of Planning Services at Arun District Council. The rest is up to you.