Boris is correct: greenfield development must be stopped

Residents in Adversane and West Chiltington, fighting the unwanted spectre of a 3,000 home new town, are encouraged by recent developments.

Firstly, in his Conservative Conference speech, the

Prime Minister pledged that homes would be built ‘on brownfield sites in places where homes make sense, not on green fields, and not just jammed in the South East’.

We hope that the Prime Minister is finally waking up to the fact that if we are to be serious about tackling climate change. We cannot keep building on greenfield sites and lose the carboncapturing potential of that greenfield site forever.

He is absolutely right that building on greenfield sites has got to stop.

Second, there will now be a further delay in the local plan following a Natural England ruling on ‘water neutrality’.

Natural England has said that new developments within the Sussex North Water Supply Zone, which includes Horsham district, must not increase the rate of water abstraction above existing levels.

Horsham District Council, therefore, is now unable to give planning permission for large new housing developments unless it can be shown that they are ‘water neutral’.

This makes good practical common sense, particularly as the government needs to take decisive action if we are to tackle the climate emergency.

For everyone who cares about preserving our precious countryside and natural habitats, these latest statements are both very good news and a bold step in the right direction.

However, the fact that Adversane has never been an appropriate site for a new town has not changed.

The design of the draft new town does not make sense. Local infrastructure is simply not adequate, enormous amounts of additional traffic would be created and it could never be delivered in any reasonable timescale.

At BigStand we will continue to press the government and the council until the new town threat is finally lifted for all time.