My name is Chris Dixon and I am fifth generation Worthing. My forefathers are buried at Worthing Cemetery and my Great Grandfather is on the Cenotaph outside Worthing Town Hall, having made the ultimate sacrifice in WW1. I have his original ‘If I am killed’ letter sent to 34 Steyne Gardens (now the Ardington Hotel) and his original MC award letter. His daughter Freda was also passionate about Worthing. She was a founding shareholder in Worthing Golf Club and helped to save the club from bankruptcy after WW2. My first ever memory was my granny pushing my brother in a pram along Worthing promenade and me crying because I was made to walk and I was not allowed to go into the pram. My parents still live in Worthing, I live in Worthing and my children go to school in Worthing. I am passionate about Worthing, the greatest town on the South Coast.
I work in property finance and manage a portfolio of varied property assets in and around Worthing. I am a UK tax payer and a member or the Labour Party. You can see my company, Landmore, by clicking on the link at the very bottom of each page. My business moto is this. ‘No one blames the truth, customers might not like it, but they cannot blame it.’
To all the people who would say no I ask this question. Why? 100 years ago was the land that your home now sits on not a field? Were our forefathers not planning for our future? Our forefathers built your home because the population of Worthing was growing, 100 years ago. Had WW2 not happened all of Goring Gap would now be homes, like yours. Fact. See the original plan and town hall agreements.
If Goring Gap was a wood or open field enjoyed by us all then my thoughts would be very different. It is not. It is not even green fields or even pretty fields. Most of the year it’s either brown or yellow and is full of pesticides. I won’t walk my dog or children through it. Goring Gap is only an agricultural field because of circumstance, WW2. I often go to the open space directly behind Goring Hospital/Goring Gap to walk my dog. This picture was taken on Saturday June the 17th 2023 at 5.42pm. It was a lovely summers day and I was alone. We have plenty of green spaces. Rather than cram people into small one bedroom flats in the town centre ‘that meet minimum living standards’, let people have some outside space; a garden. Let them enjoy our amazing sea air as well. We have more than enough to go round.
I believe more people will enjoy Goring Gap if it is developed into homes (especially children). I believe it will help our burgeoning population and I believe it will be good for the town. I believe we need to invite Persimmon homes to Worthing and let them plan a fantastic living space for our community. Planning permission was previously granted by our forefathers and town hall. They have even laid the foundations, roads and drains.
If you believe our forefathers gave their lives in vain then please object. If you believe children should be crammed into town centre converted shops, like Beales and Debenhams, without any parking or outside space, then please object. If you believe our council should keep funding local people (at our expense) to be housed in temporary accommodation outside the borough then please object. But first, please read every piece of information on and linked from this website, so you are able to make an informed decision, before you object. Take a day to digest it and then object. Is that too much to ask?
I will happily speak to anyone on this matter – please use the contact form below.
If you are against developing Goring Gap, against giving children beds to sleep in and gardens to play in, then please write to Sir Peter Bottomley MP
If you are for developing Goring Gap, more housing for children, then please write to Angela Rayner MP the Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing, Communities & Local Government.
Labour will soon be in power (2024) and I have invited Angela to come to Worthing and see Goring Gap. The more people who ask her to come the more chance we have in making it happen.