Campaigners’ bid to halt plan for industrial estate

A campaign group fighting to stop plans for a mini town being built near Billingshurst are also battling proposals for an industrial estate in the area.

Developers Our Place are seeking final planning approval for six industrial units on land at Adversane.

Outline approval was granted by Horsham District Council in 2018 and developers are now seeking approval of ‘reserved matters.’

The site, on land at Brinsbury Field, Stane Street, is currently agricultural land used by Brinsbury College.

But members of the campaign group BigStand are calling on planners to reject the ‘reserved matters’ application and are also calling for a new full planning application to be made.

They say roads in the area could not cope with extra traffic from the development and that new industrial areas have already been approved in areas surrounding Billingshurst.

Spokesman Julian Trumper said: “The new application shows a total of 274 car parking spaces, and no less than 17 loading and unloading bays for articulated lorries.

“All the new building around Pulborough and Billingshurst over the last few years means that the A29 and the B2133 are already at capacity.”

He said the extra traffic would damage the conservation area, adding: “Since 2017 new industrial areas have been approved north of Billingshurst, west of Billingshurst, and south of Billingshurst. Continuing with another new industrial area at Adversane is no longer appropriate. There may or may not be a requirement for this scale of additional industrial site in the county, but deep in the countryside at Adversane is not the place.”