Changes to Holbrook Club development's legal agreement

Developers building new houses next to the Holbrook Club are looking to make changes to the legal agreement put in place when the scheme was approved.
58 new homes are set to be built on land next to the Holbrook Club58 new homes are set to be built on land next to the Holbrook Club
58 new homes are set to be built on land next to the Holbrook Club

A permanent home for Horsham Football Club at Hop Oast was granted permission by Horsham District Council’s Planning Committee North back in May, along with 58 homes on greenfield land off Jackdaw Lane to help fund the ground.

A clause in the section 106 legal agreement stipulates that no housebuilding at the land next to the Holbrook Club can start until the new pitches at Hop Oast are ready to use, unless otherwise agreed in writing with the council.

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This was put in place to ensure no sports teams are displaced after work on the residential development on the Holbrook Club land commences.

However Reside Developments, which is building the new homes, is proposing an interim solution to give it a degree of flexibility ‘to ensure that both schemes can be delivered’.

According to the application submitted to HDC: “The project relies on the release of land at The Holbrook Club for residential development and without an agreed interim solution, to take account of any delays in delivery, the residential development scheme cannot come forward which will put the future of both The Holbrook and Horsham Football Club at risk.”

As part of the interim measures work to deliver the new pitches at the Horsham FC ground would start in January 2018 and finish in September 2018.

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Work at the Holbrook Club would not start until the end of the football season (April 2018), so no teams would be displaced until the 2018/19 season and this would happen only if there is a delay during the construction of the new pitches.

In the event of the delays the displaced football teams would play at either Horsham Park of The College of Richard Collyer until the pitches at Hop Oast are completed.

In an emailed submission Billy Greening, one of three district councillors for Southwater, said: “I’ve read through it - all seems fine.

“The ‘displaced teams’ are getting a good deal with the new pitches and the use of better and newer facilities than they currently have.”

However John Chidlow, another Southwater councillor, has signalled his opposition to the amendment.