Keep Southwater Green view of the Neighbourhood Plan Referendum

Opinion submitted by Keep Southwater Green. An alternative viewpoint can be found here.

Local residents will now be aware that a referendum of Southwater Parish voters is to held on 6th May to obtain their approval for the Parish Council's proposed Neighbourhood Plan. Voters should be aware that if they do vote "Yes" they will not only approve the Plan's Policy SNP2.2, which proposes to allow up to 450 homes to be built on Great House Farmland, but are likely to be seen by HDC planners as implicitly endorsing the Local Plan Review proposal (from Berkeley Homes) for 800 more on what is left.

The land to be "released" for housing development under Policy SP2.2 is not identified on the relevant webpages of either the Parish or District Councils, so that the extent of what is proposed emerges only from the Proposals Map at page 41 of the Plan, with further detail available from the below map (from a BH document submitted to the Examiner at the public hearing in February 2020). Although Policy SNP2.2.(g) provides that the sizes of the new homes 'should be in accordance with the latest evidence on the required housing mix' (ie. smaller 1- to 3-bedroom units rather than the larger 'executive'-style homes to be seen on Berkeley's Broadacres development), it cannot guarantee that these would actually be delivered. The evidence shows that even where an LPA - which SPC is not - does require compliance with local planning policies (as HDC notably did not with regard to 'affordable' housing levels on the North of Horsham 'urban extension'), house-builders refused planning permission for developments that do not comply frequently appeal to the Government's Planning Inspectorate - and win.