58 Parish Council News
Ashington Parish Council
Neighbourhood Plan update
February 2020 will see the publication of Horsham District Councils (HDC) local plan review which is a full review of their strategy for delivering new homes. Members of the Parish Council attended a presentation by HDC and understand that some key principles of the current HDC framework will likely remain ie settlement hierarchy (town, village, hamlet), building in or adjacent to Built-Up-Area-Boundary etc but it seems probable that there will be new policies, possibly including the building of brand-new settlements. The facts are: HDC still need to find land for 9,00016,000 homes to 2036; they are assessing 500 sites across the District, including Ashington; they are considering 8 strategic sites (>1000 homes) – 4 are ‘add-ons’ to existing settlements (Ifield, Southwater, Billingshurst), 4 are essentially new settlements (Kingsfold, Adversane, Buck Barn and Mayfield); it seems likely that they will choose some new and some add-on strategic sites and the remaining balance of homes will come from ‘smaller’ (<1000 homes) sites spread across the District; they are fully aware of neighbourhood plans and are taking these into consideration but, going forward, they want to deliver homes through their own allocations process so that they can be sure that the minimum
numbers required by Government are being delivered at the right times. Failure to achieve the right numbers means all potential sites could come forward for development. Ashington’s Neighbourhood Plan is at an advanced stage and HDC have asked that it continue to make progress towards completion. Some archaeological information is still needed, and this is being chased as a matter of urgency. Once the HDC local plan review is published a meeting will take place between HDC and every Parish in the District to look at housing numbers, site allocations, Neighbourhood Plans and the future. Email: clerk@ashingtonpc.org.uk Tel: 07851 009655 www.ashingtonpc.org.uk
