Ding. Ding. Round 2! The applicant (Milwood Designer Home and Medical Centre Developments) has amended plans to reduce the number of homes from 24 to nine following negotiations with the council, reports West Sussex County Times.
Should we all cry: “Hooray! We’ve saved half the Glebe!” ?
No, we should not.
The revised scheme removes all Social Housing and proposes nine large “Millionaire Mansions” on half of the historic Glebe Field. The applicant promises ‘Green Open Space” on the remaining Glebe land but there is no indication of how this status is preserved. Will Diocese of Chichester set it up in Trust never to be built on? Or hand it over to the Parish for future generations? Unlikely. The church is behind this whole deal and continues to hold the village’s future healthcare to ransom over the land needed for the mega-surgery at the Glebe site.
And, the revised application appears to be designed in such a way that the other half of the Glebe Field could be developed at a later date. Note the spur off the service road to the new surgery… This will allow for another batch of 5-bed houses on the remaining Glebe once the impact on Lady Place is knocked out of the way.
SPANGLE still maintains that:
• Housing on the Glebe is not needed to deliver a new healthcare centre in Storrington. Healthcare centres are financially viable as standalone developments – and HDC knows this very well (after all, its developed and owns Steyning and Southwater’s health centres – with a good return to us ratepayers);
• Given that the Doctors sold the surgery in September (for a nifty £790,000) to a private sector health centre developer, they are now free of the Diocese’s restrictive covenant!
• Mill Stream is a better site for future healthcare provision in our village – central location, lots of parking, public transport access;
• The proposed new surgery at the Glebe will feed more traffic onto the village’s most polluted, most congested and most dangerous roundabout;
• Our Parish Council – and HDC’s own Conservation, Landscape and Strategic Planning departments – all shot down the original application (and should do the same with this revised proposal as it’s simply the same scheme split into two phases);
• The proposal is contrary to local and national planning policy due to its impacts on the landscape, townscape and heritage – and is entirely contrary to the democratic process behind the Neighbourhood Plan.
On what basis is Horsham District Council accepting this as a simple revision to the previous application (which itself was set for rejection)? The removal of Social Housing indicates that this is completely new scheme. We are asking HDC why it is not rejecting the revision and demanding the applicants withdraw and start again.
Please GET YOUR OBJECTIONS in now (before 22 February) to ensure we stop the Glebe Field being turned into a Millionaire’s private gated housing development.
Remember – the housing is NOT NEEDED to fund a new surgery for Storrington!
