Over Two Hundred Homes Approved For Former Worthing Gas Works Site

Amended plans for more homes at a former gas works have been approved by Worthing Borough Council.

In 2021, the councils planning committee granted permission for up to 209 homes across five apartment blocks at the site, on the corner of Park Road and Lyndhurst road.

Amended plans for the site were approved by the committee at its meeting on Wednesday, March 20, with 19 extra flats and an eighth story added to one of the blocks.

The development will now comprise 30 studio, 57 one-bed, 136 two-bed and five three-bed apartments – 20 more studio apartments than originally planned.

It will also see reduced height on other blocks, which range from five to seven stories, an extra internal fire escape, two additional parking spaces, a connection to the council’s sustainable energy heat network when possible, and no affordable housing.

Agents from ECE Planning spoke on behalf of developer Berkeley Homes, saying the goal has been to ‘open up’ the derelict site.

They said the amendments were a ‘positive’ change to existing plans, allowing for a more sustainable development due to the proposed connection to the Worthing Heat Network.

The development will also see 100 per cent of its planned 112-space carpark include electric vehicle charging points, and generate a biodiversity net gain through tree-planting and the introduction of green spaces.

The original application saw 109 objections from residents, with the amended plans seeing only three. The objectors said parking would become a ‘nightmare’ due to the 228 new homes combined with other town-centre housing developments at Teville Gate and Union Place, and due to loss of some parking in the Waitrose car park in High Street.

They also said the new blocks would be overlooking their backyards, compromising their privacy.

Planning committee chair Andy Whight (Lab, Marine) said the development already had full planning permission from 2021, and that the committee was  to decide the benefit of the differences between the original and amended plans.

The committee agreed to add conditions that the developers look into obscured window glazing to help the issue.

Noel Atkins (Con, Salvington) said Worthing was so ‘desperately short’ of housing that 19 new homes would make ‘a lot of difference’ despite a loss of parking, with other members echoing this sentiment.

Helen Abrahams (Lab, Heene) said the parking spaces were not as much of an issue, as the ‘trends’ of ‘younger’ people who might be moving into more studio-sized apartments was moving away from a reliance on cars.

The plans were approved with four votes in favour and three abstentions, with development expected to start sometime this year given the three-year time limit on the permission granted in 2021.