LETTER: Worthless and destructive plan

In return for our acceptance of the obliteration of our remaining greenbelt (bear in mind that much of the land adjacent to the A24 and A264 has already gone to housing, on the A24 alone, 7,000 homes are in progress/approved, further 1,000s of units in progress near A264 towards Crawley) we, local residents, are offered an industrial estate of ridiculous proportions (500,000 sq ft) and a supermarket.

Claire Vickers, the originator of this plan, Ray Dawe (current council leader) and current local cabinet, insist that this will bring unprecedented economic prosperity to our town, which has never had an industrial presence in the country.

Ms Vickers apparently is undeterred in this laughable idea, despite the long-established fact that UK and the Western World (which includes our historic market town of Horsham) long ago lost any potential for serious manufacturing to China, India and elsewhere, where wages and economic conditions make sense.

In addition, Ms Vickers / MrDawe are disinterested in the fact that Horsham is not near hubs and links of interest to manufacturers, hence, there never has been and never will be any major manufacturing here!

Additionally, obvious to all, except, perhaps, the current group of councillors, there is no interest in any major new manufacturing ventures in UK; in fact, UK companies are leaving for abroad.

I understand that Novartis is likely moving much of their operations on their Horsham site out of UK. They will not be leaving Horsham because they cannot find a suitably big factory/office space nearby!

They are leaving because of worldwide economic conditions. Their large estate of substantial buildings and land will eventually have an equally large ‘FOR SALE/ RENT’ sign on it.

Just how much empty industrial/office space do Ms Vickers, Mr Dawe and their supporters think we need in Horsham?

What is the point of destroying the precious greenfields here, when there a surplus of empty commercial/industrial/office space, all of it better located than greenfields near A264?

I think the current councillors in favour of this proposal want to go down in Horsham’s history as the worst thing that ever happened to our town.

Will the council continue to ignore the obvious in its ill-conceived, damaging, pointless intentions and destroy all that is good about Horsham?

Tourism, however, is a profitable sector in UK/Horsham, but with the destruction of our town and nearby pretty villages by a vast, empty, unattractive, environmentally hazardous concrete wasteland, car parks, and boring, generic suburban sprawl, Horsham will certainly be off the map as a place to visit, to access tourist sites of Sussex and the coast from, to live in and to raise families in.

Residents opposing this worthless and destructive plan must urgently complain to their local councillors, as this ludicrous idea has made it into consultation and will be passed within weeks, unless you object.

Councillors’ details can be found here: http://www.horsham.gov.uk/1632.aspx

I. MCDOWELL (Mrs)

Pondtail Road, Horsham