30 years ago

From the West Sussex County Times of Friday March 18, 1983

An ambitious £30,000 fund-raising project is being launched by Horsham Lions Club to fit Horsham ambulances with life-saving heart equipment.

The scheme, one of the club’s biggest, was announced officially on Saturday – the same day that the Lions celebrated their 20th anniversary.

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It is planned to raise the money through a major public appeal to provide special cardiac resuscitation equipment for heart attack victims on board all Horsham based ambulances.

The announcement was a statement of intent, but he added: “We are confident that the people of Horsham and district will respond to this call,” Lions president Les Searle said that the club had for some time recognised a need in the Horsham district for the ambulance service to be equipped with cardiac resuscitation equipment, on similar lines to other districts.

“We know the ambulance crews are ready to undertake the training programmes necessary to operate the equipment.

“The head of the area ambulance service is ready to endorse the scheme,” commented Mr Searle.

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Granting permission for a house in the garden of Blakes Farm Cottage, Southwater, would create a precedent for further development in Southwater Street which Horsham District Council would find it difficult to resist.

Speaking at a public inquiry into the refusal of permission for the development, district solicitor Mike Baty said the present applicants, Southwater Properties, had previously applied for permission to build four houses on land at Southwater Street, including the current appeal site.

“It is a fair assumption that if permission is granted for the dwelling they will come back and try again to get the rest,” he said. “Granting of permission for this dwelling would create a precedent which the district council would find it difficult to resist.”

Mr Baty said the district council had already earmarked sites for 222 houses to the north and west of Southwater primary school and 600 further west. The Housing Land Society report issued by the county council and the House Builders’ Federation said all the district council areas, including Southwater, had enough land to meet housing requirements.

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In Horsham, behind the bend where Blunts Way curves round from North Parade to meet Rushams Road, there used to be a punting lake and, next to it, a market garden-cum-dump.

Since then, the lake has been filled in, the market garden has gone and on the site there is now a brand new sheltered housing development.

It was built by the Horsham branch of the Royal British Legion Housing Association and already nearly all the residents of the 46 double flats have moved in.

The official opening day is April 14 and it marks a special landmark in the British Legion Housing Association’s history. It will not only celebrate the opening of the Blunts Way development, but also the completion of the association’s 10,000th home.

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One of the principal figures behind the scheme has been George Pinion, who has been involved in it, wearing several of his many hats.

He is president of the Horsham branch of Royal British Legion, chairman of the housing association’s branch, a member of Horsham District Council and chairman of its housing committee.