Simon McDougall

Residents in Bersted,Ford and the 5 villages are facing the possibility of a 2,500 house development in their area. This is the result of land searches done by Conservative controlled Arun District Council in order to meet the 11,500 houses being forced on the District by the Labour government. The Area in question for Bersted is Chalcraft lane and the fields surrounding it in Bersted and Pagham.

These proposals are due to go out for public consultation in Mid February until the end of March. There will be many ways for residents to make their views known with public exhibitions. Public meetings, stakeholders meetings and surveys both online and paper versions.  County Councillor Simon McDougall said” I would urge all residents to make their views known about development in this area during the consultation period. The future of Bersted is at stake and it is vital you have your say on whether you want development or not. This is your opportunity to voice against development or look at ways on how proposals can best be developed for the long term interests of Bersted resident’s.”

The proposals will have a major impact on the local road infrastructure and it is questionable at this stage that the developers are going to be able to fund measures to improve the network. The government is dragging its heels in bringing forward much needed flyovers on the A27 which must be done before any development is to go ahead. The New Relief Road still to be built is only a 50 mph single carriageway and studies show this to be working at full capacity before 2026. This will almost certainly need to be dual carriageway and questions remain where the money to pay for it all is? The site itself is known to have major ground water problems, whilst not in the flood plain this area is known to saturate in winter and nobody is coming forward with solutions on how this will be overcome. Make sure Arun knows your views

At their recent one day conference in London held at the London School of Economics Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesman Simon McDougall had the opportunity to talk to Nick Clegg the Leader of the Liberal Democrats. The conference theme was Social Mobility and this gave Mr McDougall the opportunity to raise issues with the party leader about the levels of deprivation and fuel poverty within Bognor Regis and Littlehampton. He also mentioned to Mr Clegg the impact the recession is having on local residents.   Mr McDougall said “The more I talk to local people the more they are telling me how worried they are for the future. Many fear losing their jobs and the risk of home repossessions. With rising bills and the failure of many high street firms and the dire trouble of the banks the recession is having a real impact in our area. I took the opportunity to tell Nick just what was happening in our area especially on the effect of low income families.” The Conference saw the launch of the independent report on Social Mobility commissioned by the Liberal Democrats and Chaired by Martin Narey Chief Executive of Barnardos and former Director General of the Prison Service. Mr McDougall said “Unlike the labour government who have just brought back Alan Milburn to head up a government taskforce the Liberal Democrats have done the work and have policies form this that will radically change the way service could be provided in the future. Every child deserves the best start in life they can get it is morally wrong that the live chances of a child is linked to the circumstances they are born into. In some areas of out Towns residents can expect to live up to 13 years less than neighbouring communities. This is a sad reflection on the Labour government and the Conservative controlled councils in our area who have constantly failed to deliver on deprivation over many years”.