LETTER: Horsham thrives on its identity

I am writing to you to express my deep concern over the council’s proposed plans for 4,500 homes and several other facilities to be built over a wide swath of countryside from Warnham to Faygate.
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I cannot see what the council is trying to achieve. Horsham and the surrounding villages are attractive to residents and visitors because of the kind of countryside that the council is proposing to concrete.

Horsham is an area that is lived in because it has an identity and surrounding countryside. It is not a sprawling ‘ identikit’ town, overcrowded, concreted and soulless.

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The very reason it has kept its identity is why it is currently a thriving town. Attempting to create something of the ilk of Crawley would be a huge error.

People live in and around Horsham because of how it is now, not because it might become heavily populated and concreted.

I do completely understand the need for more housing. There is a requirement and Horsham has to find a way to accommodate this.

However, a development of such magnitude will change the entire identity and atmosphere of the area forever.

Simply concreting green space is not the answer.

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HDC really has to be more inventive in accommodating new housing and more realistic in its quota aims.

I have lived in and around Horsham for 15 years. I use the independent shops, cafes and restaurants.

I have attended local concerts and supported Warnham nature reserve with voluntary work and helped lead the dawn chorus walk in the spring. I and many others like me who spend their money in the local area, will simply stop doing so.

This is not an idle statement made in the heat of the moment.

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I will simply look to live elsewhere if this plan goes through, and move to an area that has kept its feel of community and open spaces, and has not sold itself out to become yet another over-populated south eastern commuter town.

I hope that HDC can see sense and scrap these plans before they even get off of the ground.

MATTHEW FARMER

Horsham Road, Rusper