Still a battle to win over the town on Rookwood project

This week Horsham District Council cabinet member for culture and leisure Jonathan Chowen had a message for the vocal opponents of proposed development at Rookwood Golf Course. He said: “Consultation is a two-way thing and we have listened and now you listen and look at what we have proposed. We have listened to you and I think it’s a very imaginative, forward thinking and visionary proposal which will deliver a huge amount of public good for the community and wellbeing.” He described how they wanted to open up green spaces for people to play, picnic, run and cycle, while even the developed part of the site would be a ‘garden setting’. However the council still faces an uphill battle to win over those opposed to development at Rookwood. Week after week the County Times’ letters pages have been bursting with readers raising concerns. This week’s edition is no exception. See pages 22-25.

At the beginning of the year, Horsham’s Liberal Democrats submitted a proposal to the council’s chief executive for the local plan strategic sites which they would find acceptable. This excludes Rookwood and they say would still enable the council to meet a target of up to 1,200 homes a year. Frances Haigh, Lib Dem group leader at HDC, said: “The type of visionary scheme being proposed by Councillor Chowen for Rookwood, is the type of scheme that should have been proposed for the Novartis or North of Horsham sites.” Their view is a new town will be required to support the extra demand for homes required by the duty to cooperate, in a location with good road and rail connections, ‘overturning the demand for constant urban extensions to our towns without ever providing necessary updates to our infrastructure’. However they believe that for the Mayfields’ scheme to go ahead it would first require government legislation to ‘unblock’ the site. In the meantime the Lib Dems found ‘much to be commended’ about the developer proposals for Buck Barn and Adversane. However they suggest the latter could be difficult to deliver until the A29 is upgraded at Pulborough. They also consider proposals for Billingshurst and Southwater acceptable, but suggest there could be some scope to reduce the immediate requirement at Southwater. Meanwhile, development west of Ifield would be ‘in proximity to the employment centres at Crawley’, could be delivered at a faster rate, contain a higher proportion of affordable housing and unlock the Crawley western relief road. Ms Haigh added: “As it stands, the local plan is not convincing. We accept that there is a need for homes, but we need to be sure that we are building the right homes in the right place, and that our placemaking will stand the test of time. There is still time to think again.”