Despair over housing

I was surprised to turn on the TV yesterday (May 27th) to see Jonathan Chowen, of Horsham District Council, on BBC South Today, speaking about how the water issue was limiting councils’ ability to encourage more houses to be built in the South East.

I was not surprised to see that he was being asked for comment on this and I suppose in retrospect not really surprised by his answers – but they exposed for me the massive gap between local council political priorities and the local residents’/voters’ wishes.

As a local resident I would have really, really respected him for saying: “We really struggle morally and ethically with being forced by political and profit-based priorities to build far too many houses in an area of the country that is already greatly overcrowded and is having its inherent countryside appeal ruined by the profit-driven greed of folk who live nowhere near.

"We recognise and know very well that it is not only the provision of water that is the problem here but also the disposal of the sewage associated with these huge developments and, as a council looking around Horsham especially, we worry about the destruction of fields, wildlife and our precious old county town community culture that we are being forced to destroy.

"In honesty, we are quite grateful that we have an excuse at the moment for pausing the building destruction of the last few years in Horsham as we know how discontented our local voters are about this.”

Instead he said something along the lines of the government levelling-up policy needs to be adjusted so that the north send some of their water down here to us to enable us to keep building.

Perhaps he might also ask Mr Gove if we can start sending sewage north in return?

I despair.

Bernice Baker