I am very disappointed that the Adur Planning Committee last night caved into the enormous pressure they had been under to approve the plans for New Monks Farm and particularly the inclusion of IKEA, which can only impact hugely on the heavily congested A27.
As I have said all along, it also takes out of circulation one of the few remaining sites which could provide much needed higher skilled and higher paid jobs in the district. Together with many local organisations and environmental groups I posed a series of questions to answer before approval which were not properly answered last night.
I will therefore be seeking an urgent meeting with the Secretary of State for Local Government further to my earlier request to call in this application and scrutinise it much more closely for its long term impact on the whole area.