Rise in house building across Sussex 'leading to increase in crime'
An increase in population because of new housing development across Sussex has led to a rise in crime in the county.
And there are fears that the situation will get worse if housing developers do not help to fund extra police services.
That’s the view being expressed by the office of Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne. The concerns have been prompted by a development plan for 304 new homes on a greenfield site at Warnham near Horsham.
They are being expressed on behalf of the crime commissioner by Sussex and Surrey Police joint commercial planning manager Jane Thatcher. She says in a report to Horsham District Council -= which is to consider a planning application for the 304 homes at Warnham – "The large numbers of housing being developed across Sussex and more specifically within Horsham district will place a significant additional demand upon our police service.”
She adds: “Once developed this site will create an additional demand upon the Police Service that does not currently exist. The Police require investment into Automatic Number Plate Recognition
infrastructure in this location. This request is proportionate to the size of the development, is site-specific and is intended to pay for the initial, additional costs resulting directly from the development for those areas where the police do not have existing capacity.”
She says that police forces nationally are not able to support major development of the scale now being proposed for many of the nation’s town and cities without the support from the planning system.
"If we are obliged to do so using our own resources only, then it is reasonable to conclude that there will be a serious risk of service degradation as existing coverage is stretched to encompass the new development and associated population growth.
"This is already evident across Sussex due to the significant numbers of housing being developed and clearly shown by the increasing numbers of recorded crimes in Sussex over the last year.”
She says that developers should pay extra cash to fund more police services including CCTV as a planning application condition.
A primary issue, she says, is for Sussex Police is to ensure that new development, like that proposed at Warnham “makes adequate provision for the future policing needs that it will generate. Like other public services, Sussex Police’s primary funding is insufficient to be able to add capital infrastructures to support new development when and wherever this occurs.”
It is necessary, she says “to secure Section 106 contributions or direct Community Infrastructure Levy funding for policing infrastructure, due to the direct link between the demand for policing services and the changes in the operational environment beyond Sussex Police’s control i.e. housing growth and the subsequent and permanent impact it has upon policing.
“Securing modest contributions means that the same level of service can be provided to residents of new development as it is to existing residents and without compromising frontline services. The consequence of no funding is that existing infrastructure will eventually become stretched to breaking point, and none of the communities we serve will received adequate policing.”
No planning decisions have yet been made on the proposed 304 new homes at Warnham.