Days left to comment on Horsham’s local plan review

The six-week consultation on the Horsham Local Plan Review ends in one week.
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The plan, which contains proposals for nine major housing sites – including 10,000 homes west of Ifield – and 22 smaller sites, is scheduled to be submitted for government inspection next January and adopted the following December.

Local Plans lay out the planning policies and proposals for new development – and without one councils leave themselves open to a developmental free for all.

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Horsham’s current plan was adopted in 2015 and has to be reviewed every five years.

With no change to the government’s requirements for Local Plan reviews, despite the coronavirus crisis, the council has no choice but to go ahead as planned.

A spokesman said: “Although we will be discussing the possible impacts of the Covid -19 situation with the government on Local Plan preparation, our current Local Plan will reach five years of age in November when our annual housing target will increase to 965 homes each year.

“It is therefore important that we continue to prepare the Local Plan to existing timeframes in order to meet our legal requirements.”

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Between now and 2036, the district must build a total of 17,370 new homes – 965 per year – as well as taking on hundreds that neighbours such as Crawley do not have the space to build. 

This adds up to 1,200-1,400 homes per year – a figures councillors have described as ‘huge and unprecedented’.

The spokesman stressed that no decisions had been made about any of the proposed sites in the plan, adding: “The decisions of the council on the sites eventually to be allocated will depend on the feedback we receive during this consultation.”

To have your say, log on to www.horsham.gov.uk and search under ‘planning’.

The consultation closes at 5pm on Monday March 30.

Questions should be directed to the Strategic Planning Team via  [email protected] or call 01403 215100.

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