Delay in decision on Horsham retirement flats denounced as 'cowardly and irresponsible'

Retirement housing specialists Churchill Retirement Living were seeking planning approval from Horsham District Council to build 36 retirement flats and six cottages on the former Roundstone Caravan site off Worthing Road in Southwater.

Council officers recommended the development should go ahead but councillors this week deferred the matter after raising queries over parking spaces on the site.

Now Churchill Retirement Living chairman Spencer J McCarthy has denounced the deferral as ‘cowardly and irresponsible.’

He said: “It is over a year since we first submitted our application, and there is absolutely no evidence to justify their decision to defer it further on a whim over two parking spaces.

"We have absolutely no idea why a scheme on a redundant brownfield site with little or no objection, which has a positive recommendation from the council’s own planning officers, has been deferred.

“This will have real life consequences for local people who are in need of age-appropriate accommodation, as well as local young families looking to move up the housing ladder.

"It will also impact on the delivery of local affordable housing, since our costs have now increased to the point where it is no longer viable for us to provide an affordable housing contribution as part of these plans.

"I believe councillors should be held personally responsible for the negative impact this will have on the local area.”

He said that the process had not only failed the company as a business, “but has also failed the many older people in and around Southwater who are looking to downsize into age-appropriate housing, releasing under-occupied housing for families and in turn freeing up houses for first time buyers, all while helping to take the pressure off greenfield land for housing.”

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And, he said, if the council eventually refused the company’s application ‘on parking’ they would seek a full award of costs against the council “since there is no evidence to justify this position.”

He added: “The decision to defer the application on the basis of two parking spaces is frankly absurd.”