LETTER: Voice your opinion before it’s too late

I keep reading letters in the WSCT raising concerns about the lack of transparency, democracy and secrecy in Horsham District Council and I wonder if being ‘economical with the truth’ should be added to the list?
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On the 11 Dec 2013 councillors were presented with a ‘summary’ of submissions received in connection with the contentious proposal to build on land north of Horsham (Draft Policy 14). The reported 1,420 submissions (more than 95 per cent objections) some of which individually ran into tens of pages, were all masterfully summarised in just one page.

A summary needs to be an objective, balanced record of submissions but this summary was subjective, incomplete and failed to represent the submissions. Throughout, there was a conspicuous lack of quantification and no assessment of the credibility of or credence given to individual submissions.

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There was a suspicious omission of references to submissions that identified planning guidance and decisions which did not support or were contrary to elements of the DP14. As a result the summary to councillors did not mention any ‘showstoppers’, eg, traffic capacity constraints identified by the Highways Agency.

The summary was not fit for the purpose of enabling councillors to make reasoned judgements about the submissions or be able to draw sound conclusions.

If you have an interest in the future of Horsham I invite you to look at page 62 of the summary at www.horsham.gov.uk/files/Agenda_131211.pdf and consider whether it is an objective, fair and balanced summary of the submissions detailed at http://horsham.limehouse.co.uk/portal/planning/hdpf_1/hdpfps?pointId=s1375230630163#section-s1375230630163

Voice your opinion, before it is too late.

C. MORRIS

Tennyson Close, Horsham