Housing development on Broadbridge Heath’s running track being explored

Housing development on Broadbridge Heath’s running track is being explored again by Horsham District Council.
Pictured pre-pandemic, Broadbridge Heath district councillors Matt Allen and Louise Potter at the running trackPictured pre-pandemic, Broadbridge Heath district councillors Matt Allen and Louise Potter at the running track
Pictured pre-pandemic, Broadbridge Heath district councillors Matt Allen and Louise Potter at the running track

Back in 2014, the council’s Broadbridge Heath quadrant masterplan proposed 200 apartments on the site of the track with a new facility on the other side of the A24 at Tanbridge House School.

Nothing came of these plans and since then the council has opened a replacement leisure centre at The Bridge.

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However debate within the council about the future of the track has continued.

Running track at Broadbridge Heath. Pic Steve Robards SR2101261 SUS-210126-111214001Running track at Broadbridge Heath. Pic Steve Robards SR2101261 SUS-210126-111214001
Running track at Broadbridge Heath. Pic Steve Robards SR2101261 SUS-210126-111214001

Back in 2018, the council said it was exploring options to relocate the running track with a cost-analysis exercise being carried out for both Tanbridge and Bluecoat Sports Centre in Christ’s Hospital.

Since then HDC has refused two applications for an all-weather running track and expand the sports centre at Christ’s Hospital School.

The school has appealed against the decision to the planning inspectorate and an inquiry is set to be heard in May.

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A council report confirms the council is looking at the possibility of building 100 new homes on the Broadbridge Heath running track site and is not yet committed to reproviding an alternative.

Keith May, chairman of the Horsham Blue Star Harriers, said: “We are sorry to see that in the latest financial extract to be presented to the Cabinet on 28th January the prospect of the closure of the track at Broadbridge Heath has again been highlighted.

“As a club we want to remain at Broadbridge Heath, linked to the other excellent sports facilities on the site and highly accessible to the town and wider district. We trust that the council’s commitment to provide an equivalent track if Broadbridge Heath is closed would be honoured.”

A report due to be discussed by cabinet members later this week said: “The athletics track at Broadbridge Heath leisure centre is at the end of its life. It will cost approximately £270,000 to replace the track before a further investment of £100,000 of additional retexturing would be needed in ten years’ time.

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“It also costs the council around £40,000 each year to maintain and run the facility.

“Alternative use of the site could provide 100 homes, of which 35 would be affordable homes and generate £250,000 of net income after taxation per annum for Horsham Homes (Holdings) Ltd. The capital receipt from the rest of the site could pay for the development of the affordable housing.

“Over a ten year period, the ‘swing’ from current costs of £40,000 p.a on the track to income of £250,000 p.a. would generate nearly £3m, supporting a much wider range of council services.

“There are options in the middle of these two scenarios that reprovide a track elsewhere, but any capital expenditure and running costs elsewhere would significantly reduce the income that might be generated.”

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Matt Allen and Louise Potter, Lib Dem district councillors for Broadbridge Heath, argue that losing the track would affect all groups of the community, but the younger generation being hit the most with athletes having to travel outside of the district in order to train.

They said: “Any closure of the running track, therefore, should take place following the approval of planning permission for a replacement elsewhere in the district.

“This replacement track should be as accessible as the existing one and as publicly available for use.”

Also discussed under a heading of ‘potential decisions to close the budget gaps’ is Horsham’s Drill Hall.

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Proposals for flats on the historic ex-Army hall site in Denne Road provoked a storm of opposition in early 2020.

An independent report was commissioned by the council to assess the current and future needs for community facilities in the town and district.

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According to the cabinet papers this review is nearing completion and ‘will help inform wider decision making on the Drill Hall and Highwood community centre’.

Officers state that not building Highwood would save up to £2million of capital expenditure and ‘save a similar revenue running cost as the Drill Hall’.

Meanwhile converting the Drill Hall into affordable homes would generate an estimated £125,000 of net income per annum.