12:23 pm, April 8, 2013
PLANS for a proposed BMW dealership in West Sussex may be in jeopardy – with local planning officers recommending to refuse the application.
Local newspaper the Littlehampton Gazette is suggesting that proposal for the dealership in Angmering are being apposed by the Arun District Council’s planning officers, who are reportedly recommending that local councillors refuse the application.
The setback comes after members of the Ferring Conservation Group, which fights for the preservation of the area in which the dealership sits, campaigned against the site’s opening.
‘Around 210’ letters objecting the site were received by the local council, with many fearing the development would ‘open the flood gates’ for ‘further urbanisation’ in the semi-rural area.
The setback, says the Gazette, was cited as being likely to save around 80 jobs in the local area – as well as creating around 30 new ones. The state-of-the-art dealership would have housed not only a showroom, but MoT and workshop facilities too.
‘Obviously we’re extremely disappointed at this stage,’ Chandlers’s franchise director Martin Walsh told the paper.
‘We have registered an appeal because certain information that the councillors requested from us to be provided doesn’t seem to have been supplied in the report.
‘So yes, we are very disappointed by the move. We put together a strong case and fully understand the points registered in there in terms of the objections. But councillors haven’t been able to hear the full story.’
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