Decision due on ‘Horsham Green’
A decision on plans for a new retirement community on the edge of Broadbridge Heath is set to be made next week.
Prime UK Land wants to develop a site off the A264 Five Oaks Road for a continuing care retirement community called ‘Horsham Green’. It would comprise of a 60-bed nursing home, 32-bed dementia care home, around 210 extra care units and a community hub building.
An outline application is set to be discussed by Horsham District Council’s planning committee north on Tuesday July 7.
The extra care units would be a mix of bungalows, cottages and apartments and the community hub would have a swimming pool, therapy rooms, gym and restaurant. Open spaces would be created including a boating lake, bowling green, croquet lawn, greenhouses and allotments.
However council officers are recommending refusal.
Planners argue that the development would have a significantly urbanising influence in the gap between Broadbridge Heath and Slinfold. They say the River Arun and A264 both provide strong natural and physical defensible barriers from urban development to the east and open countryside to the west. Officers added: “The placing of a development of this scale in this location would result in a negative urbanising effect on the countryside character of the area, with the development seen as encroaching into the countryside.”
Both Slinfold and Broadbridge Heath parish councils have objected. Slinfold PC labelled the plans an ‘opportunistic development’ that ‘does not sit well in the landscape’, while Broadbridge Heath PC objected to ‘urban creep and overdevelopment’, which would blur the boundary between the two villages.
Although five letters of support from NHS practitioners have been received, 39 individual objections were sent in as well as a petition with 34 signatures opposing the scheme.
Sajid Ali, managing director of Prime UK Land, said: “We want this facility to be of benefit to current residents of Horsham district, particularly in its rural communities, who may wish to downsize, and we have agreed with the council that those with a local connection to the district will have priority for all the extra care units, both market and affordable.”