'Now is the time' - Campaigners urge people to write to object to West of Ifield plans
Campaigners have urged people to write to Horsham District Council’s planning team to object to plans for 3,000 homes West of Ifield.
The hybrid application from Homes England was submitted to the council in the summer but no date has been set for when it will be considered.
Members of the Save West of Ifield campaign held a public meeting last week to update people on what they knew about the situation and to encourage them to make their feelings clear via the council’s planning portal.
Cathy Durrant said: “If you haven’t already objected to the planning application, now is the time to do it. If you have responded already and you have any further thoughts, you can keep objecting.”
Advising them to also send their objections to members of the planning committee, she added: “There are an awful lot of problems with this planning application. Many statutory consultees have outright objected – such as Crawley Borough Council, Gatwick Airport, Rusper Parish Council – but many more agencies, including some of Horsham’s own departments have issued strong reservations or are seeking further information because they haven’t got enough information to make an educated decision.”
The 3,000-home scheme was included in Horsham District Council’s draft Local Plan – which is yet to be approved – but was not included in its current Local Plan.
Recordings were played of interviews with Crawley MP Peter Lamb and Michael Jones, leader of the borough council – which has strongly opposed the development from day one.
Mr Jones said: “Given the major impacts that this scheme will have on Crawley and the huge pressures it will exert on our infrastructure and our services, there’s absolutely no way that the scheme should even be considered if it’s not Local Plan led – and it most certainly isn’t.”
Regarding the pressure on the town’s infrastructure, Mr Lamb warned that the capacity of the sewage system was ‘running at maximum’.
He added: “When I met with Thames Water, they said to me that they have plans for investing in that facility. I haven’t seen those plans yet.”
To comment on the application, log on to www.horsham.gov.uk and search for DC/25/1312.