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This week's letters - August 12
LETTERS from our readers for this week.
ALTHOUGH the South East Plan has been revoked and with it the 13,000 new houses imposed on our district by the previous Government, Horsham District Council (HDC) still wishes to build the same or a greater number of houses.
Why? Because a 'Study' entitled 'Locally Generated Housing Needs' undertaken by consultants for HDC recommends that the council should do so.
The stated purpose of the study 'is to consider what level of housing might be needed' in Horsham district. Note 'might be needed', not will be needed.
The consultants' qualifying caveat is necessary because the evidence employed in the study to arrive at the huge house-building target is most certainly not incontrovertible.
Why? Because the study's concluding recommendation is dependent on statistics and questionable assumptions about population growth, the economy and employment.
Statistics may be interpreted in different ways. For example, to support assumptions about future population growth mainly through inward migration, a bar chart (Fig. 3: Components of Population Change, Horsham District) is employed to show population growth through 'natural change' and 'net migration' at mid-year intervals 1991 to 2008.
However, contrary to the consultants' interpretation, the trend revealed by the bar chart seems to be a significant decline in inward migration, not an increase.
As for the assumptions, well an 'assumption' is 'the act or an instance of accepting without proof, for the purpose of argument or action'. In this instance the release of around 2,000 acres of our countryside for four or more huge housing developments.
Clearly, forward projections made in the study are subject to a high degree of uncertainty.
The Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) Horsham and Crawley Committee is therefore very concerned that uncritical use of the 'study' will result in inflexible house-building targets being set that are neither appropriate nor sustainable in terms of essential infrastructure and the environment.
It is of more general concern that local communities have not been consulted for their views on the level of sustainable development in the district now that HDC is no longer obliged to work with housing numbers handed down by Government diktat.
Dr R.F. SMITH
For and on behalf of CPRE Horsham and Crawley Committee
Bashurst Copse, Itchingfield
HAVING attended the meeting of the Strategic Planning Advisory Group (SPAG) on July 27 I suspect that few of our elected councillors have yet read in any detail the document entitled 'Locally Generated Needs Study' prepared for Horsham District Council (HDC) by G.L. Hearn Property Consultants (April 2010).
This publication, consisting of 93 pages in all, attempts to assess the numbers of new dwellings that will be needed in Horsham district between 2006 and 2026.
It will be hard-going for many and it seems to me likely that some at least of our councillors will restrict themselves to reading the 'Executive Summary' consisting of 12 pages of typescript along with 11 figures.
Anyone reading this 'Executive Summary' will inevitably believe that the consultants' concluding recommendations on page 14, to build at least 13,000 houses by 2026 were the result of sound reasoning, underpinned by reliable and conclusive evidence and therefore indisputable.
However, the evidence on which the 'study' depends is largely statistics-based along with hoary data from the 2001 census and can be regarded as neither indisputable nor conclusive.
It is salutary that in the 12 page Executive Summary variations of the word 'assume' appear on ten occasions whilst those related to 'expect' are used six times. Because the 'study' is so dependent on statistical data, it could hardly be otherwise.
The whole thing is based on assumptions about inwards migration to the district, yet the report was prepared before the decision was made to scrap the second runway at Gatwick, the genie that was to generate so much employment in north-west Sussex.
The authors themselves say at page 12 that their assessment should be interpreted with caution and presumably by that they mean it should not be swallowed whole by those elected to look after the future of our environment and at present there appears to be some danger of precisely that happening.
GEORGE W. TRIBE
The Coopers
Itchingfield
HORSHAM District Council has experienced a number of challenges during implementation of the Acorn Plus waste collection scheme, resulting in some complaints in your letters column and I hope that the following might put this into some perspective.
Acorn Plus now serves over 50,000 households, whose residents no longer have to take bottles and paper to the bank or to take green waste to mobiles or amenity sites, a benefit that has been much appreciated.
Pairing bins together at a predetermined location on one side of the road, with handles away from it, means that the sideloading lorries should normally only have to make one pass along the road and that the bins don't have to be manhandled to the vehicle.
Also the sideloaders can collect waste continuously, without having to break-off to take their load to the waste disposal site, reducing fuel costs by over 50,000 per annum.
Productivity has also increased, whilst CO2 emissions have reduced by 300 tonnes per annum.
Recycling has increased to 55 per cent, helping WSCC to obviate the need for landfill, for domestic waste. by about 2012.
HDC has achieved these results whilst maintaining weekly collections and holding the cost of collection to around 60 per household per annum, compared with the national average of 80.
Needless to say, the co-operation of residents in implementation of HDC's Acorn Plus scheme has helped to reduce the need for landfill.
Indeed, WSCC advises that by 2012 there should be no need for landfill for domestic (repeat domestic) waste in West Sussex, which will obviate a considerable burden in landfill taxes.
Another financial benefit, which residents would no doubt have appreciated, had they known about it.
Of course, there have been teething problems. For example, a few less-accessible households, which were never included in the previous Acorn scheme, still only have one waste collection and smaller collection vehicles (ie other than sideloaders) have to be used.
HDC continues to work on such marginal cases, with a view to expanding the reach of the Acorn Plus scheme as far as is practicable.
The ability to recycle plastics is determined by the the Mixed Dry Recycling facility at Ford, but WSCC continues to actively seek ways of expanding the range of plastics, which might be diverted from landfill.
Indeed, from 2013 a new state of the art Mechanical Biological Facility at Warnham will ensure that plastics, which cannot currently be recycled, will be extracted and turned into refuse derived fuel.
There continue to be problems with bins being lost within the lorry or falling over after being put down.
I can confirm that those issues are not being ignored and that neither HDC nor WSCC is complacent about what has still to be done.
ROGER ARTHUR
(Con, Chanctonbury) cabinet member for operational services, Horsham District Council
Park North, North Street, Horsham
IT WAS with much dismay that I read, and later had it confirmed by the shop staff, that the Fabric Shop in Swan Walk, Horsham, is closing down.
This has devastated a lot of sewers and knitters who come into the store, as I do, on a regular basis. To say the least, Horsham is not best provided for our dressmaking needs and even less so for our knitting requirements.
The Cloth shop on the Carfax is very good but doesn't sell wool any more, leaving us knitters with a three foot shelf on the end of a gondola in Wilkinson's.
The staff in the Fabric Shop all know their trade and are happy to share their knowledge and suggestions with you on all sorts of queries you might have.
Such expertise is now going to waste, as they say that nowhere in Horsham has been found for the Fabric Shop and they don't expect to have jobs after the end of August.
Apparently the owners of the site want to do something else with their premises.
Did I put two and two together and make 20 when I read in WSCT (planning) last week that they want to extend the shops back into the car park from that point?
Encouched in undecipherable strategic planning speak, I couldn't quite decide, but if so perhaps, in the dim and distant future, they'll give them a shop in the new leg of the precinct.
Meanwhile all we Horsham knitters will be forced out of Horsham for our knitting requirements.
There is always the internet I know, but nothing beats seeing and feeling your materials in the flesh and getting inspired by your surroundings.
So more lost revenue for Horsham – more privately owned shops making way for the big boys.
Who Cares? I care very much!
LIZ BOXALL
Hamilton Road
Horsham
MAY I suggest WSCC's cabinet member for education and schools, Peter Griffiths (Con, Hurstpierpoint), reads - or re-reads - George Orwell's Essay 'Politics and the English Language' ('Only one in seven primary school children take up hot meal option', County Times, July 29), which includes this insight:
'Political language... is designed... to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind'.
RICHARD W. SYMONDS
SCRAM Campaign for Hot School Meals and Playing Fields
Lavington Close
Ifield
JOAN Knight says she was happy with the cleanliness at East Surrey Hospital (letters August 5) as all the beds and lockers were moved ONCE A WEEK for cleaning.
I would remind her that in the old days they were moved at least once a day, hence no bugs.
JOAN COE (Mrs)
Farm Close
Barns Green
'THINK Biker!' I adhere to this request, especially early on Sunday mornings when they roar down our road at speeds well in excess of the maximum.
At this time of the day my thoughts are rarely complimentary or printable.
I sometimes wonder why 'Think Biker'? Is it because they can't think for themselves?
K.C. TAYLOR
East Street Billingshurst
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Weather for Horsham
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -1 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 6 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: -7 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: East
