Retirement community between Slinfold and Broadbridge Heath emphatically refused

The application for land off Lyons Road, aimed to provide specialised housing for older people, including bungalows, cottages and flats, all offering extra care, a 60-bed care home and a 32-bed specialist dementia care home.

A last-minute influx of 87 letters of support – only one of which actually came from the Horsham district – was described as ‘cynical’ by objector Andrew Lunt.

The letters came from as far afield as Cardiff, Liverpool and Birmingham, plus a ‘suspiciously high number’ from Surrey.

Mr Lunt said: “How lovely that they all have the needs of our local community in their hearts.

“But forgive me for concluding that this has been a cynical attempt to deluge the committee with letters of support ahead of the decision.”

Mr Lunt told the meeting the development would be a ‘complete urbanisation of an otherwise rural environment’ and pointed out the concerns residents had about the ‘ever-shrinking rural gap’ between the two villages.

Supporting the application, Surrey based Dr Shakil Rahman stressed the need for more dementia care in the district, while planning lawyer Phillip Krantz, speaking on behalf of applicant Prime UK Land, urged the committee to put ‘the needs of your residents above those fields’.

The needs – and safety – of potential future residents was on the mind of Neil Beer, chairman of Slinfold Parish Council, who pointed out that elderly people would have to cross the busy A264 or use bus stops on Lyons Road to get to local shops.

All councillors recognised the need for more dementia care in the area but every single one of them felt this was the wrong place to build the new community.

Toni Bradnum (Con, Nuthurst & Lower Beeding) said it would ‘leave people marooned on the site surrounded by busy roads’, while Stuart Ritchie (Con,  Itchingfield, Slinfold & Warnham) said the gap between Slinfold and Broadbridge Heath was ‘worth preserving’ rather than allowing an ‘isolated’ development to go ahead.

The application was refused by 26 votes to zero, with one abstention.

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