Thakeham council sets out strong objections to Horsham’s Local Plan

Thakeham Parish Council has set out concerns to district councillors who are due to meet to discuss the plan on Wednesday (July 28).

Parish councillors say that, if approved, Thakeham would be re-designated as a ‘medium village’ but they maintain that the village’s population and facilities are typical of existing ‘small villages’ and could not cope with expansion.

The Local Plan proposes 140 additional houses on a site in High Bar Lane and one off Rock Road.

But local councillors say adding a further 140 houses will mean Thakeham has the largest proportionate housing growth of any comparable parish in the district. The parish council says there is also “no credible plan to improve public transport; no credible prospect that capacities of local primary and secondary schools will be able to cope; and no credible prospect of Storrington’s over-subscribed primary health care facilities being able to cope.”

The council adds: “This Plan will render the neighbourhood planning process for Thakeham parish redundant, and the same will go for most other neighbourhood plans in the district.

“A context in which neighbourhood plans evidently stand to be swept aside from year to year, at the dictate of distantly-set and unconvincing central government housing growth targets, creates no reason for any parish council to invest resources and local public credibility in the neighbourhood planning process.

“The result will be future chronic opposition between parishes and Horsham District Council on planning matters.”