New Mulberry Fields development to be included in Southwater parish rather than Shipley

Proposed boundary changes between Southwater and Shipley parishes. Picture: Horsham District Council

The decision to extend the southern Southwater boundary to take in the entire 193-home Mulberry Fields development, was made by Horsham District Council.

It will come into effect from the parish council elections in May.

The change, which was requested by Southwater, comes after the plans were put out to consultation, attracting only five responses.

Two members of the public supported the proposals, one opposed them, and West Sussex County Council recommended that no change should be made until the development was complete and the new residents had had their say.

Shipley Parish Council was not in favour of the initial plan to include land adjacent to Mulberry Fields in the boundary shift, but agreed the amended proposals to only include the development site.

The council will now write to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England to ask for the necessary adjustments to be made to the county division boundary.

Members of the governance committee were advised that district wards would not be affected by the change.

Claire Vickers (Con, Southwater) said the amended plans were ‘sensible’, adding: “I agree it’s a much better layout than the parish council had suggested and I’m in total support of it.”