Protest against thousands of new homes goes ahead despite local plan meeting’s cancellation

While a meeting to move the plan on to its next stage was cancelled on the advice of legal officers, that didn’t stop dozens of protesters from gathering to oppose proposals for thousands of new homes across the district.

The draft Local Plan laid out policies and proposals to guide development in the district up to 2038.

But days before it was set to be put forward for a six-week consultation, the government declared that any authority planning large developments had to have a Local Plan looking 30 years ahead.

So now it’s back to the drawing board to adapt Horsham’s draft plan for the years up to at least 2051.

When asked why the council was taken by surprise, given that the 30-year requirement was included in the government’s draft document, shared earlier this year, a spokesman said the revisions were ‘substantially different’.

They added: “Whilst the government consulted on draft changes earlier this year, the council can only plan on the basis of the National Planning Policy Framework that is published, and not on what it might be in the future.

“No warning was given that the revisions were to be published [in July].

“The revisions that were published on July 20 are substantially different from those which were consulted on.”

Councillors were due to hold an extraordinary meeting last week in which they would have approved the Regulation 19 planning document.

This is essentially when the version of the Local Plan the council wishes to adopt is published in draft form before being put out to consultation for six weeks.