There could not be a subject more important to get right for residents of West Sussex than planning. Unfortunately, all the signs are that this government are about to make it worse. I am expecting that Angela Rayner will this week confirm her plans to ride roughshod over local communities which will result in a vast increase in housebuilding in Sussex. Sixty per cent more in Chichester and 40 per cent more in Horsham – that’s 2,500 additional homes every single year in just these two districts alone.
This is the same government whose first act was to cancel any improvements to reduce congestion on the A27 which leads to rat-running and HGV’s through our communities. They have got this completely wrong. The homes that the nation needs are in places full of brownfield sites, and places which are well supplied with infrastructure such as 24/7 public transport, hospitals, universities and the broadest set of shopping. We call these places ‘cities’ and only last week the respected Centre for Cities produced a report confirming that whilst West Sussex has absorbed more than its fair share of new houses, London has fallen catastrophically short. For purely political reasons, the government is lowering the housing targets for London whilst imposing higher ones elsewhere. This is not to absolve local councillors of their responsibility.
Whatever the national targets may be, individual site selection is wholly up to them, and the scale of development being proposed around Barnham, Loxwood, Storrington or in Steyning is completely inappropriate when brownfield sites within the same districts lie unused. Having recently given evidence at hearings against the Chichester Local Plan, I will be doing the same at Horsham Town Hall this week. There is literally no point councillors declaring ‘climate and nature emergencies’ and then the very same councillors and their political parties giving the green light to destroy ancient hedgerows, important habitats and create water run off that overflows sewers and is polluting our rivers.
