LETTER: Anonymous urban sprawl

So, the long-feared outline planning application for North Horsham development has at last been submitted (County Times August 4).
By The Newsroom
Published 11th Aug 2016, 12:00 BST

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The fact that this has happened in peak holiday time, when many people are away and with only the usual 21 days in which to comment on a mass of documentation, is doubtless just a coincidence?!

The many objections to this scheme have already been well-aired, but cut no ice with Horsham District Council, which incorporated it into the Local Plan.

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Like every local authority, Horsham is under enormous pressure from central government to release more land for housing. The plan apparently promises many good things, including 30 per cent affordable housing.

Nevertheless, it is a ghastly prospect! It will be a development cut-off from the rest of the town by the A264 Northern bypass, which was always supposed to be the northern boundary of the town.

It will add to the anonymous urban sprawl that Horsham, once a market town with its own identity, is fast becoming, as well as further narrowing the gap between Horsham and Crawley.

It is symptomatic of the present day chaotic, developer-led planning process.

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We are constantly reminded of the need for more houses to ease the chronic housing shortage, but as more and more of our countryside is built over, how much of the development mix actually contributes to solving the problem, as opposed to just lining the developers’ pockets?

More analysis of this problem is badly needed.

When most of the South East has been covered in concrete and there is still a housing shortage, what then?

Stephen D. Watts

Heath Way, Horsham

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Related topics:North HorshamHorsham District CouncilLocal PlanCrawleyFacebookTwitterSouth East