LETTER: Inappropriate development

Further to your item regarding the WDC approval of the Rosemead application for 123 homes in Horam.

As a Parish Planning committee we were in total agreement in our recommendation for refusal of this application. It was felt a hostile and an inappropriate development in the totally wrong location.

This application under normal circumstances wouldn’t even be considered, except at the moment everything seems to hinge on the lack of a five-year supply. Development boundaries are also a thing of the past, which sadly is a convenient excuse to approve everything that comes their way.

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In WDC’s own documents development east of Horam is limited and the Government’s own document the NPPF might consider this application to be too isolated in the countryside. With this approval it will set a precedent and weight to any future applications in this location. With land coming forward all the time I think a time of reflection might be useful to see the extent of what will be available and more acceptable. The Victorian bridge will be reduced to a single lane, roundabouts and gateways all associated with urban living not the countryside. Water, sewage and other infrastructure including broadband are already stretched to say the very least.

Finally there have been some very unprofessional tweets (from certain people who should know better) about residents being nimbies and we would assume they mean the Parish Council as well. I would strongly suggest that this is incorrect as the PC recently supported an application for 38 homes near the tennis courts in Horam and the Crematorium, Which proves if proof were needed we are a forward thinking PC and are open to new developments where appropriate.

In more recent tweets from the same source who are the agents for the crematorium and Rosemead are full of praise and good wishes for the officers in WDC for their hard work.

This could be seen as a good reason for these decisions to go to the Secretary of State, for this is a cosy relation which does need to be reviewed.

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In conclusion perhaps WDC need to review any plans to use this company in any further applications of its own. Also the thumb on the tweeter account should find a job where they could do less damage to public relations.

Michael Cousins

Chairman Horam Parish Council and Chairman of the Planning Committee

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