FERRING CONSERVATION GROUP - Press Release
New impetus for Conservation Group
Ferring Conservation Group, set up
12 years ago to oppose a threatened development of the village cricket
ground, has changed its constitution to reflect its wider concerns and
the kind of development that now threatens the village. At the Annual
General Meeting on Saturday 27 April the purpose of the Group was
redefined as the conservation and preservation of the beauty and
present character of Ferring.
The new chairman of the Group, Ed
Miller, said: The Group has many interests in the wild life of
Ferring, its open spaces, and its foreshore. It also has many successes
to its credit defending the Goring Gap and the East Preston Gap, and
securing the pocket park of woodland
in Sea Lane as well as its original victory on the cricket pitch.
But today the pressures on the environment of Ferring are of a different
kind the big set-piece battles have been won (for the time being,
anyway). The two Gaps are in the County Structure Plan, Highdown
is in the South Downs National Park, and the foreshore is well-protected
from roads and development. The battle now is against infilling
and other small scale redevelopment.
The recent attempt to build 30
flats to replace six bungalows at the southern end of Ferring was a very
clear example, he went on. The Group, along with 400 residents,
protested against that planning application and it was rejected.
Smaller schemes get less publicity and do not attract that level of
protest. A case in point is the series of applications to build houses
in the car park of the Tudor Close pub and restaurant. And now someone
wants to build a chalet bungalow in the front garden of the house
opposite the Tudor Close. If this sort of development is allowed the
character of Ferring, with its open layout of houses on large plots,
wide verges, old trees and village
atmosphere will gradually change into an overcrowded and soulless suburb
of Worthing. The
Conservation Group should be leading the fight against this
over-development.
Also elected were Lyn Saunders
(Vice-Chairman), John Browning (Secretary), Chris Wrightson (Treasurer)
and a committee of eight.
New Committee member Geoff Barrett has taken on the task of Membership
Secretary to get back in touch with hundreds of former members who
have lost contact with the Group. Ed Miller said: The Group has 1500
names on its membership list -that
is well over a third of the Ferring population, If we can get those
members active again we can speak with enormous authority for local
residents and achieve a great deal for the local environment.
Ends
