Take Rookwood out of the plan
I passionately believe that Rookwood does not belong in Horsham’s new Local Plan.
By including it alongside ordinary commercial developments, it will be impossible to give this essential public amenity the attention it deserves. It’s being treated as just another building site.
Unlike all the other sites, Rookwood is owned by HDC and therefore offers a huge financial pay-out of perhaps £40 million.
In theory, councillors are not supposed to take this into account when making a planning decision. That’s ridiculous – it’s not something you can just put of your head.
The council intends to develop it largely for profit. What most people don’t realise is that half must go to the original owners - the Lucas Estate.
This is because it was originally sold to the council at a reduced rate, specifically on the condition that it would be retained forever as a community asset.
It seems ‘forever’ doesn’t last as long as it used to.
As a public amenity, we have 100 per cent ownership. As a building site, we only own half. If we tried to replace Rookwood with land elsewhere it would cost us full price. (Not that this Cabinet has any intention of replacement, of course.)
This sale has nothing to do with Covid. It was planned back in 2016 when the council was in a healthy financial state.
Further, any monies raised will arrive far too late to make a difference to our present crisis. Rather, this is part of a longstanding official Conservative strategy to ‘maximise’ all council assets. In practice, that means selling them off for housing.
The result is that Rookwood will pass right through the system without the principle of development ever being debated.
We will never get a chance to consider other, better uses. It has never appeared in any Conservative manifesto – not even for the District elections in May 2019. Neither did the Drill Hall redevelopment, and you can be sure there are other sales being planned right now. If HDC own it, it’s at risk.
The present ‘consultation’ process is not worthy of the name. Strong public outcry has forced some concessions, but time is short (the deadline is effectively the full council meeting of next February 3). We simply don’t have the time to sort this out. What needs to happen is for Rookwood to be taken out of the Local Plan process.
Rookwood belongs to all generations, not just this Cabinet. The whole point of the family silver is to keep it in the family. We can decide collectively to develop Rookwood, or not, at any time. Placing it in the Local Plan kills proper debate and consideration.
This is no way to make an irreversible decision about one of our most precious assets.
CLLR JOHNMILNE LibDem Memberfor Roffey North