Parish council news

60 Parish Council News

Ashington Parish Council I said to a resident the other day that the neighbourhood plan is possibly the hardest project I’ve ever worked on. That opinion was reinforced last week when the Horsham District Council (HDC) local plan review documents were published. For 4 years we have diligently tried to plan for the future of the village, fully aware that HDC are facing significant challenges with housing numbers but with agreement from them on housing numbers that are ‘appropriate’ for Ashington (225 homes) in the lifetime of the neighbourhood plan. A higher number than some residents were comfortable with but enough, we understood, to deliver our ‘fair share’ of the District need. Our draft neighbourhood plan not only delivered the homes in the most sustainable locations but would also deliver actual community benefits in terms of Neighbourhood Plan update

public land, more community sports facilities, flood relief scheme for Mill Lane, protection from development for Forest Schools and the school’s allotment land. Proper planning for the village. Usually developers just hand over money so that someone else can deliver community infrastructure –somewhere random, eventually, possibly. The HDC local plan review is now consulting on an additional 400 homes on top of the neighbourhood plan number. That’s 600 in total, >50% increase for the village and the additional 400 are to satisfy a housing need in the ‘south of the District’. As it stands, we have more questions than answers regarding the future of Ashington and the draft neighbourhood plan. The Parish Council will be meeting HDC as a matter of urgency. The local plan review document is for consultation only and none of the proposals in the document are HDC policy, yet. It is therefore crucial that residents let HDC know about the issues the additional housing numbers may raise. Residents can make their opinions known to HDC here: horsham.gov.uk/planning/local-plan/have-your-say Email: clerk@ashingtonpc.org.uk Tel: 07851 009655 www.ashingtonpc.org.uk

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62 Parish Council News

Storrington & Sullington

Horsham District Local Plan Review –Have your say By the time you are reading this article, Horsham District Council (HDC) will be consulting the public about the content of its local plan review. Central Government is putting pressure on local planning authorities to increase the number of homes that are being built and HDC is being compelled to include more pieces of land for development in the Local Plan. There are at least three areas in this Parish that are being considered for extra homes despite the fact that these pieces of land have been assessed as inappropriate for development and have been excluded in the Storrington, Sullington and Washington neighbourhood plan. The Parish Council believes that the neighbourhood plan includes a fair amount of housing for the area and any more developments of significant numbers must be strongly opposed in the absence of any improvements to infrastructure. Please take the time to look at the consultation and object to any extra land proposed for this parish. Air Quality The Air Quality Steering Group met recently and I will be reporting on this in future articles. Climate Action We reviewed our carbon footprint report at the January 8th meeting of the infrastructure, communications and

environment committee meeting (the full report is available online in the minutes of that meeting). Our total carbon emissions as a Parish Council for 2019 was 17.76 metric tonnes (based on the data available); roughly the same as one person taking 21 return flights from Gatwick to Lanzarote. We agreed three sets of actions: reducing our own energy consumption (e.g. replacing light bulbs with low energy ones), switching to a green energy supplier for gas and electricity, and influencing sustainable behaviour among our suppliers. We also agreed to lobby Horsham District Council to supply neighbourhood wardens with electric vehicles and improve charging points and connect with the South East climate alliance to get ideas for what more we can do. Text by Anna Worthington-Leese, Parish Council Chairman. For more information on SPC please contact www.storrington-pc.gov.uk 01903 746547. Meetings March 2020 All meetings are held in the Chanctonbury Room, The Parish Hall, Thakeham Road. Recreation & Property Committee 4th March - 7.30pm Planning & Development Committee 12th March 7.30pm Full Council 25th March 7.30pm

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