David Moore, Horsham Society: Oh what a tangled web we are weaving

It was interesting to see in last week’s County Times reference to the Times’ list of the most attractive market towns in Britain and it was wonderful to see that Horsham was ranked in second place.

The downside of this type of commendation is that it makes Horsham a desirable place to live, if you can afford to buy a home.

It becomes more difficult to maintain this type of appeal as the size of any town grows and the attraction of many towns has been destroyed by uncontrolled and ill-thought out development. This is the problem that faces Horsham today. In reality, the risk is no different than it’s been for many years but it’s moving far closer to the point of no return.

Secondary education continues to present an ongoing problem. We have to cater for the needs of the children, who live or will live in the West Horsham and Southwater developments.

Why should we expect all these additional children to cross the A24 for their secondary education? Why do the current plans assume that there may be one of even two secondary schools in the proposed North Horsham development? Is the intention to have a counterclockwise movement of schoolchildren from West Horsham into Tanbridge, from Trafalgar into Roffey and from Roffey into secondary schools on the other side of the A264?

What are the plans for primary care? At the present time, it looks as if the promised GP surgery in the West Horsham development has been abandoned. How can we be sure that the same thing won’t happen in the proposed North Horsham development?

It’s a total shambles. Any integrated planning system would put the key elements of the necessary infrastructure in place in advance of its need.