Chichester Planning: 317 Homes Approved, Only 19 Permitted

Chichester District Council’s planning committee resolved to approve every application in front of it on 9 September, up to 317 homes, a 66-bed care home and 22 caravan pitches. A week later only one of the six is an actual planning permission.

The council’s own printed decisions sheet for the meeting records the outcome in five words for most of them: “Defer for section 106 then permit”. Only the reserved matters application at North Mundham was a straight “Permit”.

That distinction is the point of this piece, and it is the thing that gets lost when a scheme is reported as approved.

What “defer for section 106 then permit” means

A committee resolution is not a planning permission. When the committee defers for a section 106 agreement, officers cannot issue the decision notice until the applicant has signed a legal agreement under section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. That agreement is what binds the developer to the affordable housing, the highway works, the play space and the financial contributions.

Until it is signed and the notice is issued:

• there is no permission, and nothing can lawfully start on site
• the terms are still being negotiated, so the numbers can move
• the application sits on the register as awaiting decision, not decided

None of that makes approval unlikely. It does mean “approved” and “permitted” are two different dates, sometimes months apart.

The register bears that out. As of 16 September, 26/01272/REM at North Mundham is the only one of the six to appear on the council’s list of decided applications, in the week beginning 14 September. The other five are still open.

What the committee decided, item by item

Maudlin Farm, Westhampnett: the big one

The largest scheme by a distance is 25/01662/OUT at Maudlin Farm, Dairy Lane, on the edge of Maudlin. The applicant is Teren Project Management Ltd.

It is an outline application with everything reserved except access, which would be a new junction on Old Arundel Road. The officer report describes a 14.9 hectare site that is already a strategic allocation, under policy A10 of the adopted Local Plan. What it would deliver:

• up to 265 homes, including 13 self-build or custom-build plots
• 30 per cent affordable housing, a total of 80 homes
• specialist accommodation for older people, and a care home facility
• open space, play areas and associated infrastructure

The three gypsy and traveller pitches that policy A10 requires are not part of this application. The report says they are proposed on an alternative site under a separate application.

Westhampnett Parish Council objected. Boxgrove Parish Council also registered an objection.

Two things surfaced on the day, in the council’s update sheet.

The transport assessment had left out the older people’s accommodation. West Sussex County Council, as highway authority, told the committee that trips from the specialist accommodation had not been counted. Adding them puts 11 more vehicle trips in the morning peak hour and 10 in the evening peak, taking the modelled total to 136 per hour in both peaks. The county did not treat that as severe. The applicant has agreed to fund £8,500 for battery-powered real-time passenger information at the north-eastbound bus stop on Stane Street, to be written into the section 106 agreement.

A new condition was added for unexploded ordnance. A non-intrusive survey of the site has been carried out, and the committee added a condition requiring site investigation works recommended in that survey, and any remedial action arising, to be approved before development starts.

Loxwood: the parish council changed its mind on the day

26/01055/FUL is 33 homes on land south of Farm Close, Loxwood, for Macar Homes (Southern Counties) Ltd. The scheme is partly inside and partly outside the settlement boundary, with a substantial part of it on land already allocated for housing.

It carries a minimum of 40 per cent affordable housing, 13 homes: six at social rent, two at affordable rent and five shared ownership.

The application went to committee because Loxwood Parish Council had objected. The update sheet records that the parish council withdrew that objection, saying its design concerns had been addressed, that wastewater had been assessed to a higher standard than it expected, and that the density complies with policy.

The update sheet also deals with the emerging Loxwood neighbourhood plan. The revised draft was published on 2 September 2026 and its Regulation 14 consultation runs from 8 September to 20 October 2026. Officers told the committee the plan is at a very early stage and carries very little weight in a decision made now.

Westbourne: a neighbourhood plan policy set aside

The most legally interesting item is 25/02308/FUL at The Old Army Camp, Cemetery Lane, Woodmancote. It is a retrospective application, under section 73A, for 22 static caravans for Gypsy and Traveller residential occupation, with seven utility buildings, a store and 22 bin and cycle stores. The site already has a lawful use for travelling showpeople’s plots.

Two findings in the officer report matter beyond this site.

The council can demonstrate only 2.44 years of Gypsy and Traveller pitch supply, against an identified unmet need of at least 24.2 pitches. That shortfall is why the report concludes permission should be granted unless the benefits are substantially outweighed by adverse impacts.

A made neighbourhood plan policy was given very limited weight. The report finds that the proposal conflicts with policy OA3-1 of the Westbourne Neighbourhood Plan, but that criteria a), b) and c) of that policy are “materially inconsistent with the NPPF (August 2026)”. Under national policy, officers say, those elements can only be given very limited weight.

Westbourne Parish Council objected. One third-party objection was received. A previous application on the site, 24/01444/FUL, for 25 caravans across six shared pitches, was refused by the same committee in January 2025 on an officer recommendation for refusal.

The other three

Shopwyke Lakes care home, 26/00728/FUL. A 66-bed care home for older people on land south of Longacre Way, for LNT Care Developments and Hanbury Properties (Chichester) Ltd. It sits inside the Shopwyke Lakes strategic development site but slightly outside the area the masterplan earmarked for an “elderly campus”. Oving Parish Council objected, and five third-party objections were received.

North Mundham, 26/01272/REM. Reserved matters for 19 homes on land north of Laroch, Post Office Lane, under an outline permission granted in 2021. The chair of North Mundham Parish Council asked for a condition restricting HGV movements around school pick-up and drop-off times. Officers declined to add one, saying it would revisit matters already settled at outline stage and that the existing construction management condition can cover it. This is the one application that now has its decision notice.

Barnfield Drive, 26/01145/FUL. The former Homebase, and the M&S relocation, which we covered in full on the morning of the meeting. The update sheet records 44 further letters of support and two further objections arriving after the agenda was published.

What it means for you

• If you objected to one of these schemes, the file is not closed. Five of the six still have no decision notice. The section 106 terms are still being settled, and the council publishes the signed agreement on the application file when it is done.
• Check the register rather than the headline. Search the reference on the council’s planning register and look at the status field. “Awaiting decision” means exactly that, whatever has been reported.
• The fastest way to know what a committee actually decided is the printed decisions sheet. It goes up on the council’s committee calendar within a day or two of the meeting. The minutes take weeks, and the update sheet, published on the morning itself, carries the late consultee comments and condition changes that never reach a press release.

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