LETTER: Business as usual in secret meetings

I was shocked, not to say outraged, to read in last week’s County Times that ‘private’ meetings are being held by the council to discuss plans for the controversial North Horsham development.
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Apparently there will be no formal minutes of these meetings, so rather than ‘private’, I think we can reasonably call them ‘secret’.

What are Horsham District Council and Liberty Property Trust afraid of?

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Are they worried that the natives will become restive if they get to know more about what is being decided behind closed doors?

Already Liberty Property Trust has formally upped its proposal for housing from 2,500 dwellings to 2,750 (see the notice on the HDC Consultation Portal). What other nasty suprises do they have for us in the pipeline?

An unnamed spokesperson at HDC said the council is committed to maximising opportunities for local people to raise their concerns.

I don’t know how we are supposed to do that if we have no idea what is being decided at these ‘private’, unminuted meetings. Evidently the meetings are ‘not an open invite to the public’.

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I had hoped that after the local election, transparency and local democracy could start to live again at Horsham District Council.

Sadly, it looks as though it’s going to be business as usual.

SHEILA WHITE

Dorking Road, Warnham

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