New Sainsbury's Local store at old Horsham Car Centre refused

Two application to change the use of the old Horsham Car Centre, in Crawley Road, from showroom to retail unit were turned down by the planning committee on Tuesday (January 10), with one councillor describing the plans as ‘singularly unattractive’ and ‘potentially a nightmare’.

The first application had been returned to the committee after being made the subject of a judicial review, which saw the council’s previous decision to approve the plans quashed.

The second application proposed cosmetic changes to the design and appearance of the development.

The committee was not impressed by either of them.

Chairman John Milne said an application for the same site for a Majestic Wine store was at ‘an earlier stage in the planning process and may or may not come to committee in the future’.

He added: “It’s not our role to choose between Sainsbury’s and Majestic – that’s a matter for the landowner.”

The plans included parking for only ten cars when 26 were recommended, which prompted several councillors to wonder if Sainsbury’s had under-estimated how many people would use the shop.

While the application included the building of a ‘ghost lane’ for traffic turning right into the site, there were still concerns about the impact of the new shop given how close it sits to the Roffey traffic lights.

Planning officers recommended the applications be approved but councillors gave them a firm thumbs-down by 21 votes to one with one abstention.

Karen Burgess (Con, Holbrook East) said: “I can’t actually find anything that commends this site to me.

“It’s singularly unattractive, it resembles a chicken farm, it’s potentially a nightmare with all the traffic movements, it’s over-intensification, it’s far too big [and] the lack of parking spaces is a complete oversight.”

She added: “This is a nightmare site and we need something smaller there. This Sainsbury’s is far too big.”

And Alan Britten (Lib Dem, Roffey South) called the development ‘a colossus for that area’, which he could not support.

To view the application, log on to public-access.horsham.gov.uk and search for DC/21/2028.