Detailed plans for brand new Horsham new fire station revealed

A budget of £21million for the fire station and training centre, within the Highwood development, was signed off by West Sussex County Council leaders in mid-September.

A planning application for the scheme has now formally been submitted.

The town’s current fire station in Hurst Road were built in 1968 and are described as ‘dated’ which do not support the ‘necessary modernisation of the service’.

Meanwhile West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service has never had a dedicated training centre and has relied on converting former fire stations and commissioning training from commercial providers.

The application says: “The opportunity to create a combined fire station and state of the art training centre at this site to the west of Horsham is therefore a high profile scheme which will deliver transformational improvements to Fire and Rescue facilities, not only for the Horsham area but for all WSFRS staff and partners county-wide.”

The facility would be situated just off the new junction linking the new Broadbridge Heath bypass with the A24 at the new Berkely Homes development next to the Highwood Mill extra care facility managed by Saxon Weald.

The main building, comprised of the operational fire station and training centre, includes appliance bays, office space, training rooms, gym, showers, self-catering facilities and en-suite bedrooms for residential recruits.

On site there would also be a live fire training facility, cold smoke training tower, garages, building to store breathing apparatus, diesel fuelling point, emergency generator, drill yard activity space and a training area for road traffic collisions.

A number of green measures will be included such as LED lighting, electric vehicle charging, heat recovery on mechanical ventilation, solar panels and source heat pumps.

To view the plans visit www.westsussex.gov.uk/planning using code WSCC/049/20.