Clarence Mitchell was invited to appear on the BBC Sunday Politics South East show this week to discuss the Council's proposals for an extended travellers site in Horsdean. The plans, which would see an extra 12 permanent pitches built and potentially more than 100 vehicles descend upon the National Park site, are fundamentally flawed. The Conservatives believe that the Council has not given due consideration to the real safety concerns raised by residents.
Clarence raised these concerns once again, some of which include:
• It would set a dangerous precedent for further development in the South Downs National Park.
• The site sits right on top of the main abstraction adit for the aquifer that supplies much of Brighton & Hove’s drinking water, leading to serious risk of contamination - a potential problem for the whole city, not just the neighbouring wards.
• The cost of the infrastructure required to connect the site to the mains sewer (involving drilling piping under the A27 bypass) will be exorbitant.
• Locating the permanent and transit sites together will inevitably mean costly management and traffic problems caused by having high numbers of travellers and vehicles (up to more than 100 at any time) in one place, particularly with single lane access off the busy A27.
You can watch the programme now at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/bigscreen/tv/episode/b03bt5xt - it is available until Sunday (13th). The feature begins at 37.50.