Thousands of objections lodged to strategic sites

Thousands of objections have been lodged against potential strategic sites across the Horsham district. Horsham District Council held a consultation on its draft local plan between February and March with 6,340 comments received from around 3,350 individuals and organisations. An interim report on the findings of the consultation has been published, while all comments are being made available online over the next few weeks. Although no decisions have been made on housing sites and the final housing target, a number of potential locations were put forward in the plan. The strategic sites were West of Ifield, a new market town north-east of Henfield, Buck Barn, west of Billingshurst, east of Billingshurst, west of Southwater, Kingsfold, Rookwood and Adversane. Mayfield Market Towns’ proposal for a new settlement attracted the most opposition with 1,669 objections compared to 36 in support and 39 observations. Plans for Rookwood Golf Course were next with 474 objections, while land at Adversane (359), Buck Barn (356), East of Billingshurst (278) and West of Billingshurst (243) receiving the next most. Except for Land West of Crawley and Rookwood, infrastructure issues were the most commonly cited reasons for an objection. In these two cases the environment was the biggest concern. But for the other strategic sites objectors not only mentioned existing infrastructure problems such as traffic congestion and lack of health infrastructure, but in some cases felt not enough new infrastructure would be delivered by the potential site allocation to support both new and existing communities. For smaller sites the greatest number of objections were received in relation to Ashington, with 197 received. Officers said this was a clear expression from the community against new development occurring at a rate greater than that outlined in the neighbourhood plan. Around 94 supportive comments were made relating to the Horsham Golf and Fitness site, mostly from self-identified members of Horsham Hockey Club who are supportive of development and specifically the delivery of hockey facilities on the site. Meanwhile on housing numbers 279 objected overall compared to 132 in support. Support was greatest for the lower figure of 1,000 new homes a year (56 object to 55 support), compared to 1,200 (58/25) and 1,400 (62/53). Officers said: “In general terms comments received from the public generally felt that the housing target was too high whereas developers had a preference for the higher housing targets. In addition there was a general feeling among members of the public that HDC should not help meet the needs of other authorities (particularly Crawley) and that development in the district was already too high. The development industry consistently offered an opposing view.” In addition, there were at least 189 comments relating to the consultation itself. Two common responses were the online system was difficult to use and the consultation should have been cancelled or extended due to the lockdown. Officers noted these comments were a low proportion of the total and most complaints about the online system were made via the portal. They said it had been clear that written and email comments would be accepted and had also set out the reasons for not extending the consultation as the main events had been completed prior to lockdown. The comments will now be subject to further detailed analysis to fully inform the next steps of plan preparation. The council explained that further work would be derived from the specific planning issues raised during the consultation rather than the number of comments or the level of objection or support for a particular site or housing target. The indicative timetable suggests that the proposed local plan submission could be published for a period of representation in September/October, with a draft plan submitted in January 2021. An examination by a planning inspector would then take place in the spring, with adoption happening as soon as December 2021. To view the comments visit https://strategicplanning. horsham.gov.uk/consult.ti/ LocalPlanReview/listRepresentations