Incredible resentment at 130 new Storrington homes

Howard Brunt set up Stop Storrington Sprawl (SSS) to fight a planned 130 homes by Wates Development north of Melton Drive, and urged people to complete his website’s survey and write to MP Nick Herbert.

Last week the County Times re-launched the ‘It’s Plan Crazy’ campaign to put pressure on decision-makers in Government and Horsham District Council to get a sensible planning policy in place.

HDC is currently deciding where and how many houses will be built in the district over the next 20 years.

Mr Brunt said: “People feel incredibly resentful about the way in which this is being imposed on us.”

He said that the Conservatives had unequivocally alienated their own base. “People say: ‘We are thinking of voting UKIP’. It purely comes from them without any prompting,” he explained.

The new group was liaising with Save our Storrington, which has been campaigning on air quality concerns and the new Waitrose development approved late last year.

“Horsham District Council are beginning to get in a stage of despair I suspect because they are having to pay all appeal costs. It’s all working against us, but it’s the Government that’s causing the problem.” He added: “The need for additional homes is recognised but indiscriminate damage to our villages and the rural environment is simply unacceptable. We will not serve ourselves or future generations well by allowing the wholesale destruction of our countryside heritage. Our fathers and their fathers before them fought for our green and pleasant land, let us not forget that.

“The Government must allow local planners to determine where and how development takes place without setting ridiculous targets. They must stop overruling those decisions.”