Tens of thousands of pounds needed to fight planning appeals in Middleton, Pagham and Shripney

Plans for nine homes on this plot of land in Pagham is one of the planning appeals Arun District Council will have to fight

The appeals – for developments at Middleton Poultry Farm, Inglenook Hotel, Pagham, and land east of Shripney Road – could cost the council thousands more if they are upheld.

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One recent appeal left Arun having to fork out £11,500.

During a meeting of the cabinet, Neil Crowther, group head of planning, said the appeals workload was ‘exceptionally high’ and had ‘significantly increased’ since May 2019.

Figures presented to the meeting showed there had been only one appeal between May 2018 and 2019 after six of the 88 applications were refused.

Since May 2019, there have been 14 appeals with 16 out of 81 applications refused.

Mr Crowther said there was a ‘significant risk’ of these three latest appeals being lost.

He added: “These appeals are all as a result of decisions to refuse planning permission by the development control committee contrary to the officers’ recommendations.

“The department only has limited resources to deal with appeals and in previous years this workload was manageable.

“The current workload cannot satisfactorily be accommodated within this budget.”

The report was described as ‘quietly damning’ by Conservative leader Shaun Gunner – though council leader Dr James Walsh pointed out that development control was a cross-party committee and each application had to be judged on its merits.

The £40,000 is the equivalent of 64p on a Band D council tax bill.

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