The Site
The site, known as Pump House Field, is next to the Temple Bar Interchange – the only grade-separated junction on the A27 east of Chichester, making it a good location for employment development along the A27.
It is also adjacent to a solar farm, consented and allocated residential developments, and Rolls Royce’s proposed extension. The site will soon be surrounded by new housing, and is able to provide new jobs for that community in a sustainable location.
Why Here?
Chichester needs more jobs in the district to stop young, working age people being forced to leave to find employment elsewhere. Nearly 50% of Chichester’s working population travel 40 minutes on average by car to work elsewhere, which creates around 16,000 vehicle movements a day. The effect of the lack of local jobs can already be seen in the district’s ageing population, with the number of people in Chichester aged over 65 increasing by more than 20% between 2011 and 2021 and the population aged between 35 and 49 falling by nearly 9%.
There is a severe shortage of industrial and logistics development nationally and regionally. This is critical national infrastructure, essential to the free flow of goods into and around the UK. Recent history (Covid, Brexit, Ukraine war, Suez Canal disruption) has shown how interruptions to supply chains can have an impact on everyday life and the cost of living. More and better facilities are needed for onshoring and storage to improve supply resilience; particularly between consumers and the south coast’s ports.
The site is next to the Temple Bar junction on the A27, which is the best, grade-separated junction on the A27. Creating employment next to new homes not only reduces the need for residents to commute to work and potentially find employment outside the borough, but the development could also contribute towards improvement to the A27 around Chichester to reduce congestion.
It Is also adjacent to two large forthcoming housing developments west of Tangmere and east of Westhampnett, together totalling around 1,565 homes. This would place a range of new jobs (including entry-level, management, and technical specialist roles) within walking and cycling distance of thousands of new residents, removing the need for them to commute by car to work and possibly leaving the borough to find employment.
Site Constraints
Flooding
The land is within Flood Zone 1, the areas at the lowest risk of flooding. Surface water drainage would be carefully considered, with new drainage ponds at the south of the site to contain rainwater within new areas of green open space and wildlife habitats.
Heritage
There are a number of listed buildings in Strettington, to the north of the site. The proposals seek to mitigate impact on these listed buildings by ensuring that the part of the site closest to them is only used for green planting, landscaping, and new habitat creation – improving the setting of these historic cottages.
Archaeological investigations of the site could be required by the planning authority before any work takes place.
Visual impact
The boundary of the South Downs National Park is 500 metres to the north of the site. This means that we need to be aware of the visual impact of the development from the north, even though substantial change will already be coming to the area following the expansion of Rolls Royce and the building of the new housing developments around Tangmere and Westhampnett.
The height of the proposals will be influenced by the need to protect the views from the National Park, and we will include green planting to screen the development, and green walls and sensitive cladding to mitigate the impact of the new building and mitigate lighting to protect Dark Skies.