Stop 3,500 houses at Buck Barn

Write to decision makers today to ask them to say no to 3,500 homes at Buck Barn.
Save West Grinstead Action Group SUS-210331-153135001Save West Grinstead Action Group SUS-210331-153135001
Save West Grinstead Action Group SUS-210331-153135001

Say no to increasing traffic and pollution at the already busy ‘Buck Barn Crossing’ of the A24/A272.

Say no to cutting off a unique wildlife corridor linking the Knepp Rewilding Project, a nature restoration project and home of countless threatened species including the White Stork, with St Leonard’s Forest and beyond.

Tell the decision makers NO to 3,500 houses at Buck Barn.

Save West Grinstead Action Group SUS-210331-163402001Save West Grinstead Action Group SUS-210331-163402001
Save West Grinstead Action Group SUS-210331-163402001

- The link will take you to a ready-made letter to send in your own name at the click of a button.

It takes 30 seconds to tell the decision makers NO to development at Buck Barn.

Buck Barn development blocks key wildlife corridor

Save West Grinstead Action Group SUS-210331-153104001Save West Grinstead Action Group SUS-210331-153104001
Save West Grinstead Action Group SUS-210331-153104001

Buck Barn and the surrounding countryside hosts one of the biggest breeding populations of song birds.

At its heart, the Knepp rewilding project is hailed by Government, including in its 25 year Environment Plan, as an outstanding example of nature restoration.

It hosts some of our most threatened species such as nightingales, turtle doves and purple emperor butterflies.

Last year, white stork chicks hatched there for the first time in Britain for 600 years.

Save West Grinstead Action Group SUS-210331-153115001Save West Grinstead Action Group SUS-210331-153115001
Save West Grinstead Action Group SUS-210331-153115001

The development of 3,500 houses at Buck Barn would not only increase pollution and traffic congestion in the area.

Crucially it would cut off a key wildlife corridor linking Knepp-one of our country’s most significant sites for nature-and St Leonard’s forest.

Building houses at Buck Barn would cut off an essential wildlife corridor which is vital to connecting other areas of nature with the Knepp project.

The nearest railway station to the proposed new town at Buck Barn is over six miles away.

The development would bring 7,000 additional cars and vans and residents would be forced to use the already gridlocked A24 and A272.

Increased traffic, removal of 375 football pitches of beautiful green countryside and persistent construction will multiply the already high levels of air pollution which have been monitored in the area.

“Horsham Council should be looking for solutions, not adding to the problem, and destroying this beautiful countryside” said Dave Tidey of the Save West Grinstead Action Group.

“The Government’s 25 Year Plan for the Environment’ is meaningless if they allow Horsham District Council to allocate housing on the wildlife corridor at Buck Barn, next to the Knepp rewilding project. The 3,500 new houses would cut off the Knepp estate from St Leonard’s and the Ashdown forests, reducing it to a wildlife island in a sea of housing. Knepp has been hailed by MPs as an outstanding example of nature restoration, it hosts some of the countries most threatened species such as nightingales, turtle doves and purple emperor butterflies. Last year, white stork chicks hatched here for the first time in Britain in 600 years. Horsham District Council should commit to its aims in Wilder Horsham District plan and take this site out of the local plan.” - Isabella Tree

Why they should not build a new town at Buck Barn

Many of you will know that Horsham District Council (HDC) is drawing up a new housing plan for the period 2019-36. The drive for new homes, fuelled by a central Government seemingly fixated on building over the entire south-east, means that HDC is forced to work on a figure of 1,200 per year.

This number is actually no more than a guess as to how many will be needed, and it is swollen by the imposed requirement for HDC also to build houses for residents of the south coast and Crawley, which are considered to be ‘full’. It therefore has no relation to actual local needs but, if HDC does not come up with an approved plan for achieving it, then developers could have an open season to build where they like.

HDC has identified nine ‘strategic sites’ (read ‘new towns’) to build the bulk of the new housing estates. One of these is a greenfield site at Buck Barn, the junction of the A24 and A272, where it is proposed to build approximately 3,500 houses. This is the worst possible choice for the following reasons:

It is socially and economically unsustainable. There are no facilities, no services, no work, no public transport. It is the site furthest away from the employment centres on the south coast and the Crawley/Gatwick diamond. The nearest railway is 6 miles away. The only way to and from it would be by private car. Using West Sussex census figures showing 62.7% Horsham homes have 2 more vehicles we can assume the number of inhabitants and vehicles per house, this would mean roughly 8,000 new residents and 5,000 or more vehicles. It would be built on green fields, prone to flooding. It is not hard to imagine the boredom and alienation of young people living there, miles from any entertainment or recreation.

It would be environmentally hugely damaging. The site is currently a ‘Habitat of Principal Importance for Conserving Biodiversity’. Bats, badgers, butterflies and 30 species of bird of current conservation concern are all found there. Their habitat would be lost; the greatly increased light, noise and vehicle pollution would drive away any remaining wildlife left after 800 new cats and 800 new dogs (using PDSA pet survey averages) had arrived. It would also severely compromise, if not destroy, the wild-life corridor from Knepp to St Leonard’s Forest.

It would further stress an over-stretched road network. There are currently approximately 55,000 vehicle journeys through the Buck Barn junction each day (according to the Cowfold neighborhood plan 2018u). The Buck Barn housing estate would generate roughly another 15,000, a 30% increase assuming vehicles that leave the site go for at least one journey back and forth a day with additional trips. Of the resulting 70,000 vehicle journeys, 3,500 would involve HGVs (5% of all vehicle miles DFT); no electric motors there, just diesel. The queues at the various nodes (A24/272, A272/281) would rapidly become gridlock. The consequence will be increased exhaust pollution and the use of local lanes as rat runs, threatening the safety of local riders, cyclists and pedestrians.

It will not deliver the housing that is needed locally. House prices for this kind of development normally range between around £360,000 to £850,000, (based on equivalent sites by the same developer at Pease Pottage, Portslade and Bookham) and quite out of reach of first-time buyers and young people, as well as people working on lower incomes. These are the homes that are needed, not more ‘executive’ boxes.

It goes without saying that, by approving the Buck Barn development, HDC would have to drive a coach and horses through their own planning framework. But this is the position to which the current targets have reduced them.

Are there no alternatives? Yes. There are several other possible sites, all of them closer to employment and transport links. One is a site west of Buck Barn, Kingswood in Adversane, with easy access to the shops, schools and public transport in Billingshurst, with the Arun Valley railway line directly abutting the western side of the site, and closer to employment on the south coast.

What are the arguments in favour of Buck Barn? None.

We understand the difficulties faced by HDC. We are not, Canute-like, trying to oppose any new housing in the parish. We have submitted a Neighbourhood Plan which envisages a substantial number of new homes but which is also very much centred on developing brownfield land and therefore preserving, so far as we reasonably can, our precious countryside and its biodiversity.

It seems both immoral and undemocratic that scarce assets which are important for all of our quality of life -space, clean air, green fields, biodiversity- and which have been enjoyed by the community for hundreds of years, should now be sold off in this way.

The Buck barn proposal will generate enormous profits for the landowners and house builders alike. West Grinstead and Horsham District will be left with nothing but another housing estate and an environmental desert.

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