Concerns over 'contamination' of Horsham land earmarked for 500 new homes

Two separate planning applications have now been lodged with Horsham District Council to build around 500 homes on the site of former pharmaceutical company Novartis off Parsonage Road.

The company’s headquarters was there for many years until it vacated the site in 2014 – and it has been empty since then. It previously contained office buildings, workshops, research facilities, staff areas, a canteen, and extensive hard standing parking areas but all former buildings have been demolished except for two – a five-storey Art Deco structure and a more modern structure from the 1980s attached to it.

Some local residents are now raising objections to the proposed housing development and are querying whether dangerous residues could remain on the land. One, in a letter of objection to the council, queries: “How dangerous are the asbestos, heavy metals and potentially carcinogenic hydrocarbons still lurking in the soil on the Novartis site? The land was used by the pharmaceutical company for decades – and – as the reports on Horsham District Council’s planning portal show – the soil remains contaminated.”

Another said: “I'm concerned what's being proposed poses a serious risk to the health and safety of local people – not only from gridlocked roads – but from toxic substances on land now earmarked for children's play areas.”

Planning proposals have been submitted for housing and landscaping on two areas of the site – one for 244 homes and another for 206 homes. Planning permission for a ‘mixed-use’ development of new homes and businesses was granted in 2020 but proposals for business-use fell through when West Sussex County Council, which owns the land, said no companies were interested in moving there.

Now, Nexus Planning, agents for the developers, say that a large proportion of the new homes would be ‘affordable’ if planning permission is granted. They say: “The site is in a highly sustainable location and is Brownfield land. It is exactly the type of site that planning policy at all levels promotes for the delivery of development, and particularly housing.”

And many residents are welcoming an opportunity for people in Horsham to get on the housing ladder via the development. But others are raising further objections.

Along with fears of land contamination, there are concerns that the housing would be too ‘high density’ and amount to an overdevelopment of the site, along with worries over increasing traffic problems in the area, a lack of health services and other infrastructure, concerns over the felling of cedar trees and peregrine falcons nesting in the area.

No decisions have yet been made.