Development on southern edge of Southwater granted planning permission

The application from Reside Developments to develop land at Woodfords, in Shipley Road, was given the nod during a meeting of the planning committee on Tuesday (August 1).

This was not the first time the committee had considered plans for the site.

A previous application was turned down in 2021, with Reside losing an appeal against that decision.

And this latest application was deferred in April so that officers could seek technical guidance on rainwater harvesting, seek legal advice regarding the monitoring and enforcement of water neutrality off-setting measures, and review the speed limit on Shipley Road.

No less than 40 per cent of the new homes will be classed as affordable.

The plans have not proved popular with locals or the parish council, with 96 objections being registered.

Concerns included over-development of the village, the impact of extra traffic on the area, and whether or not issues of water neutrality had been addressed.

To ensure the development is water neutral, almost 10,000 litres per day needs to be off-set.

In other words, that amount of water needs to be saved elsewhere.

Reside plans to do this by retrofitting 187 homes in Crawley, that are managed by the Raven Housing Trust, with water saving fixtures and fittings.

This will be the first time such off-setting has been approved for outside of the district.

Leader Martin Boffey shared the views of many of his colleagues when he said he felt the development was in the wrong place and went against the Southwater Neighbourhood Plan.

He added that, if Horsham had a new Local Plan, the application would already have been turned down.

But Horsham doesn’t have an up-to-date Local Plan and, given that officers were satisfied that all the issues raised in April had been addressed, refusing the plans again would likely lead to an expensive appeal.

After a lengthy discussion, the application was approved by 17 votes to four with three abstentions.

To view the application, log on to public-access.horsham.gov.uk and search for DC/21/2180.