Call to halt Horsham from becoming an '˜unattractive metropolis'

A planning model for future development needs to be drawn up for Horsham to stop the town becoming an '˜unattractive metropolis.'
Roffey Millennium Hall. Photo: Google SUS-180910-115127001Roffey Millennium Hall. Photo: Google SUS-180910-115127001
Roffey Millennium Hall. Photo: Google SUS-180910-115127001

That’s the view of the town watchdog group the Horsham Society which is calling for a co-ordinated approach to new development. Otherwise, it says, young people will move away from the area.

Society member David Moore said: “We are not going to avoid more and more development in Horsham district so let’s have a model for what we believe is required in each new development and then ensure that this same model is applied to the existing areas.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“If we don’t get it right, we’ll finish up with Horsham town becoming an unattractive metropolis, solely designed for commuters, with Horsham district becoming gridlocked with traffic and children continuing to travel unnecessarily long distances to school.

“What we are currently doing does not represent a good model for a place where people wish to live and our young people will continue to move away to achieve independence as well as a reasonably priced home with some quality of life. What a waste.”

Writing in the Horsham Society’s newsletter, Mr Moore says that building more houses and flats in and around Horsham has already led to more traffic on roads, a shortage of school places and pressure on GP surgeries.

“It has also created fragmented communities both in the existing areas as well as in the new developments,” he said. “There needs to be a co-ordinated approach.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He said planners should look at existing communities and consider their success and failures. He queried why there was a community centre in Roffey, but none in the Forest, Denne and Trafalgar areas of the town. “If they’re considered to be an essential part of a major new development, surely it would make sense to build community centres in the other three areas of Horsham town?”