LETTER: Abandon Plan and start again

Following the withdrawal of Brighton University from its plan to establish a campus at the redundant Novartis site the chief executive of HDC (Tom Crowley) is quoted in your issue of May 14 as saying ‘we are examining the detailed implications of the university’s announcement in so far as the draft Horsham District Planning Framework (HDPF) is concerned’.
By The Newsroom
Published 27th May 2015, 07:00 BST

This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on items purchased through this article, but that does not affect our editorial judgement.

Your lettersYour letters
Your letters

As well he might, given that the now defunct project has just been included as one of the Main Modifications (MMs) in the revised Plan, currently the subject of a full public consultation, and Mr Crowley has also admitted that the Plan will need to be further adjusted in order to meet the District’s housing and employment needs.

In view of this disruptive development it might have been expected that HDC and / or the Planning Inspector would call for the suspension of the consultation pending the development of a more soundly based plan subject to proper scrutiny by the council – instead of being hastily rubber-stamped and put out for consultation without councillors having seen much of the evidence supposedly justifying it, as happened with the present version at the extraordinary meeting on 18 March.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

However, far from learning the lessons of its earlier folly the council appears to be bent on rushing through another half-baked proposal without proper scrutiny – or even the pretence of public consultation.

This seems the only interpretation one can put on the announcement by the Inspector – slipped out on the HDC website at http://www.horsham.gov.uk/planningpolicy/planning-policy/horsham-district-planning-framework-examination (see under Inspectors Documents) on 14 May – that he intends to go ahead with public hearings on the revised Plan on 3 July, when one item on the agenda will be ‘The proposed allocation for the former Novartis site’.

Given Mr Crowley’s simultaneous statement quoted above, this can only mean that the hearing will consider an alternative proposal for the site that has yet to be dreamed up and which can hardly be scrutinised by the newly elected council, let alone subjected to public consultation, before 3 July.

Is it not time for the council to abandon this chaotic and discreditable process, withdraw the current version of the HDPF and start again to prepare a Plan which is based on objective reality and in line with the needs and expressed aspirations of the local community?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

If this involves using all available means to resist the anti-social demands of developers with no interest in the welfare of our community – as many local authorities around the country have been prepared to do – then so be it.

HARRY SHUTT

Allingham Gardens, Horsham

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be among the first to know what’s going on.

1 Make our website your homepage at www.wscountytimes.co.uk

2 Like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/wscountytimes

3 Follow us on Twitter @wscountytimes

4 Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

The County Times – always the first with your local news.

Be part of it.

Related topics:HDC