Redrow and Wates submit plans for 1,500 homes in West Sussex

Housebuilder Redrow and construction giant Wates have jointly submitted plans for a 1,500-home settlement on the site of the former Ford airfield.

The scheme will see the construction of the homes on a 900-acre site alongside a primary school, care home, shops, open space and leisure facilities.

The development will be on the historic Ford airfield in West Sussex, used as a base by the RAF during the Battle of Britain in WW2, and for Hunter jets subsequently.

The developers claimed the scheme was the largest to have received community support via inclusion in a neighbourhood plan. The firms, who have been working up plans for the site since 2013, said they hoped to work with  Arun district council to secure permission over the coming months.

The developers have previously reassured residents that the development will not compromise the operation of the farmers’ markets and car boot sales which operate from the air strip, or the operation of businesses neighbouring the site. These include an aerobic digestion plant and digestate lagoon to the north and a concrete batching plant to the west, as well as an Ford open prison to the east.

A spokesperson for Redrow Southern Counties and Wates Developments said: “We are not aware of any other community in the country voting in support of 1,500 new homes as part of its neighbourhood plan. This success illustrates what can be achieved through constructive neighbourhood planning and sets a benchmark for developing new communities of a major scale.”