Major business owner lashes out at Horsham Council planning 'shambles'

He spoke out after a Government Planning Inspector chucked out Horsham Council’s Local Plan saying he wouldn’t allow it to proceed and recommended its withdrawal.

The inspector said the plan should have included proposals for significantly more houses and that the council had failed in its ‘duty to cooperate’ with meeting the housing needs of neighbouring Crawley. It had also, he said, failed to do enough to overcome ‘water neutrality’ issues.

The council has expressed ‘astonishment’ at the inspector’s views and says it does not agree with them. But businessman Jeff Hobby, owner of the Dunmoore Group – developers of Billingshurst Business Park – said: “The council is not listening to criticism.” He said its dealings with planning issues were ‘a shambles’ and that his views had been vindicated by the planning inspector’s rejection of the Local Plan.

He said Dunmoore itself had submitted 11 formal complaints to the council over planning issues between 2021 and 2022. At that time, he said, the council acknowledged a need for improvement and committed to better engagement to discuss issues.

But he said the council's handling of a planning application for The Range store in Billingshurst – which the council has refused – showed that the council's assurances had not been implemented. He said Dunmoore had documented 15 unanswered phone calls to the council and five ignored emails in January alone and repeated offers to enter into 'planning performance agreements' were also declined. Dunmoore maintains that 'failings' it has highlighted to the council "form part of a systemic pattern, now formally recognised by the Planning Inspectorate."

A Horsham District Council spokesperson said: “The council is aware of the complaints submitted, which have been investigated in accordance with the council’s complaints policy. As a complaint is currently outstanding we are unable to comment in detail on the matters of this case at this stage. “The council would however wish to clarify that there is no relationship between the emerging Local Plan and any decisions on individual planning decisions for this case. The council has placed only limited weight on the emerging plan at this stage as it had not been through the Examination stage of plan making. “In respect of the Local Plan, the council has already stated that it does not agree with the Inspector’s conclusions and has raised a number of significant concerns with the conduct of the examination process.”