West Sussex County Times

Community centre at Highwood is approved

- Karen Dunn Local democracy reporting service

Plans to spend £2.75m building of a new community centre and nursery at Highwood have been approved by Horsham District Council.

The plans were given the nod during a meeting of the cabinet in March and the budget was agreed by full council on Wednesday (April 27).

Some £2.5m will be included in the 2022/23 capital budget and £250,000 in 2023/24.

The community centre will cost £1.26m and the nursery £1.36m, with a budget contingenc­y of £130,000.

The building of community facilities at the 1,000+ homes developmen­t

at Highwood was part of the Land West of Horsham Masterplan 2008.

Ruth Fletcher (Lib Dem, Denne) said: “It’s obviously been a long route to get here but this is finally delivering the community centre that was promised and, indeed, paid for in the Section 106 settlement when the developmen­t was started.”

Martin Boffey (Lib Dem, Trafalgar) said there had been ‘some ups and downs’ but added that he was pleased to see the council keeping its promise to build the centre.

Leader of the council, Jonathan Chowen (Con,Cowfold, Shermanbur­y & West Grinstead) said he was pleased the council had been able to work through challenges such as ‘the rather ambiguous financial agreement with the developers’.

He added: “I’ve always thought it’s so important that when you create a new community – as we have done with Highwood – that you have to put infrastruc­ture in there for the community.

“Otherwise, you’re going to have real problems going forward.”

The new centre will be 300sqm, including a 100sqm hall and parking for 30-35 cars.

The 300sqm nursery will be part of the same scheme and will be retained by the council as a commercial property investment, bringing an expected six per cent return on capital.

Christian Mitchell (Con, Holbrook West) told the meeting that consultati­ons had been held with a number of nurseries and Scout group about potentiall­y using the new building.

If planning permission is given, both the community centre and nursery are expected to be opened in late 2023.

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