Thank goodness for common sense! Our Parish Council met last week to review the ‘revised proposal’ and has issued an unequivocal response to Horsham District Council with regards to this speculative housing development: a STRONG OBJECTION.
The letter from the Parish Council to Chris Lyons, Director of Planning at HDC provides an accurate summation of all that is wrong with the application. In short, “the only thing that this application facilitates is profit for the diocese,” says the Parish Council consultation. And the application provides only a short term solution: “(it) does not provide a future-proof service to the community beyond 5 years and a longer-term solution to the provision of health care is required”.
Here are some other key extracts:
“Whilst members fully support extended medical facilities, the Parish Council continues to register its STRONG OBJECTION to the above revised application on the following grounds:
Firstly, this Parish Council believes that with a 60% reduction in the number of houses proposed, this represents a more than significant change to the original application and that it should be considered as a new application and not an amendment.
That said, members do not consider that the reduction in the number of houses proposed has addressed any of our previous objections.
In addition, the type of houses proposed is not in line with the emerging Neighbourhood Plan, which requires a predominance of smaller houses, not larger ‘executive’ type houses. The Design and Access Statement incorrectly states that the proposal includes an element of affordable housing – it does not.
This proposal is now described as a ‘facilitating’ development, to provide the local community with a new doctors’ surgery through the delivery of new housing, housing that is neither needed nor of the size required, as indicated in the Parish’s Housing Needs Survey… There is therefore no overriding need for the houses proposed in this application. The proposal does not qualify as “enabling development” as there is no “significant building” to be protected.
It is also noted that the road to the south east of the proposed development has been left as a hammerhead, leaving access to the remainder of the site, presumably for further development at a later date. Should this application be approved, this would set a dangerous precedent for the remainder of the field.
In response to the previous application, HDC’s Strategic Planning Department said, on 23.9.2016: “The proposed housing is not enabling development for the medical centre as the medical centre would be financed by a grant from the NHS”. This has not changed. The only thing that this application facilitates is profit for the diocese. This is evidenced by the statement on page 35 of the D&A statement “…the Diocese have kindly offered to release the land required for the new doctors surgery for a nominal fee. However, this gesture is on the basis that new housing is to be delivered on site”. This is a cynical attempt by the diocese to obtain development that it has tried and failed to obtain in the past, by using the need for extended medical facilities to its own advantage. It is entirely possible for the diocese to sell a piece of land for a surgery without building houses.
The proposed location is a greenfield site, which is allocated as a Local Green Space in the emerging Storrington & Sullington and Washington Neighbourhood Plan.
The Parish Council considers that the traffic study provided with the application is inadequate and requests that WSCC Highways fully assess the implications of this proposal upon this already congested area.
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The proposed new surgery does not provide a future-proof service to the community beyond 5 years and a longer-term solution to the provision of health care is required. The Planning Application does not make provision for further expansion to the medical centre and therefore the building could be rendered unsuitable for the needs of the community by 2020 and the threat to medical services in the community would return.
You can download the full letter by clicking on the image.
What’s next? Well, the public consultation has closed but we await the key internal consultations from HDC’s own Landscape, Conservation and Strategic Planning officials. All three departments objected to the initial scheme and we cannot see how they can view any of the changes in the revised application any differently. In fact, with the removal of the Affordable Housing, one could consider that (a) this revised scheme is effectively an entirely new application and (b) with no Affordable Housing, the revised application is even more contradictory to HDC Strategic Planning policy.
The application is scheduled for consideration by HDC’s full planning committee on Tuesday 21st March. Join us there!
