New demand to protect Rookwood Golf Course from development

A fresh demand to protect Rookwood Golf Course from development has gone out from an influential Horsham community group.
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Horsham District Council is proposing to build up to 700 houses on the golf course - which it owns - but the plans have been met with huge public opposition.

And now Horsham Town Community Partnership has written to the council objecting to the inclusion of Rookwood - ‘one of the town’s most treasured amenities’ - as a development site in its Local Plan.

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The Community Partnership is a not-for-profit organisation and consists of representatives from Denne, Forest and Trafalgar Neighbourhood Councils, North Horsham Parish Council, Horsham Society, Horsham in Bloom, Horsham Older People’s Forum and local residents.

Horsham District Council says it will expand Warnham Nature Reserve if its plans for Rookwood go aheadHorsham District Council says it will expand Warnham Nature Reserve if its plans for Rookwood go ahead
Horsham District Council says it will expand Warnham Nature Reserve if its plans for Rookwood go ahead

The group says: “HTCP cannot and does not support the proposed loss of any part of Rookwood as it is a valued amenity and local green space.”

And, it adds: “The directors of the Horsham Town Community Partnership hope that good sense will prevail, that the concerns expressed by very many residents of Horsham and district will cause councillors to remove Rookwood as a strategic development site from the proposed Local Plan.”

Meanwhile, Forest Neighbourhood councillors, in a separate letter to Horsham District Council, have asked the council ‘unequivocally’ to withdraw Rookwood Golf Course development in its entirety from the draft Local Plan.

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They say the fact that the land is owned by the district council means “its value will not diminish and as it is now such a sensitive issue, it needs to be carefully considered without any form of time restraint.”

They also say: “We cannot agree that the current golf usage has reached the end of its natural life. The golf course is fully utilised and cannot be described as ‘surplus to requirements’.”

And they maintain that inclusion of Rookwood for development within the draft Local Plan “negates all the aims set out in the five-year partnership between Horsham District Council ‘Wilder Horsham’ and Sussex Wildlife Trust.”

Concerns are also being raised over flooding in the area which, it is feared, could be exacerbated by any new development.

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Earlier this month, Horsham District Council said it planned to expand the nearby Warnham Local Nature Reserve - if its proposals to build up to 700 houses on the golf course go ahead.

It says the housing would be limited to around 30 per cent of the total land area and there would also be a site for a new primary school.