Arundel & South Downs MP Andrew Griffith has welcomed news that the Planning Inspector has stopped Horsham District Council’s flawed plan in its tracks. This follows his impassioned plea on behalf of local residents at the Examination Hearing on Thursday (12th December) in which he raised concerns for a number of the strategic sites in the south of the district.
Last week Andrew Griffith said at the public hearing:
“I am not against making a plan. It is simply that I am against this particular plan. Notwithstanding the no doubt good endeavours that people have approached it with, it is not one that should be made.”
The MP went on to say:
“Because if cynically the system barrels on regardless - and it is causing an enormous erosion of trust - it is actually preventing the homes being built that we need to be built.”
“I am very concerned by a number of the site allocations made for housing in this plan, and I speak for the communities whom I represent in the south of the Horsham District. Storrington, Pulborough, Henfield, Ashington, West Chiltington, Thakeham and Small Dole - all of those have strategic sites identified.”
“My constituents in Storrington, Pulborough, Henfield, Ashington, West Chiltington and Thakeham have experienced the impact at the sharp end of inappropriate housing developments previously approved by this Council. They are universally not NIMBYs. Indeed, all of them have developed and worked on neighbourhood plans, providing housing growth for their community and the type of housing that delivers for them. But we have seen a substantial amount of housing, far more than our fair share. It’s concreted over much of our green fields and our land is particularly flood-prone so that has resulted in significant amounts of flooding because of past development of homes roads and footpaths.”
