Plans to build 125 homes in Billingshurst have been refused by Horsham District Council.
The outline application from Northgate Properties Ltd, for land at Hilland House, New Road, was turned down by the planning committee on Tuesday (December 17).
An almost identical application for 117 homes on the site – plus a landscape buffer to the south – was also rejected.
Planning officers had recommended the plans for approval, despite the fact that the site sits outside the built-up area boundary and had not been allocated for development.
They felt that, given the council did not have the required five-year supply of housing land, the benefits of so many new homes would outweigh the negatives in the applications.
The vast majority of the committee, though, did not agree.
Among the concerns raised was the fact that the homes would not be connected to the water mains but would receive their water via boreholes sunk into the site.
Officers said there would be one mains connection at the borehole site which could be used in an emergency.
The system would be maintained by a management company.
The low point for the committee was the ‘sub-standard’ access arrangements for the site, changes to the road, and the ‘bare minimum’ footpath.
The application sought to add a 1.5m wide footpath along New Road while narrowing parts of the road in places.
Concerns were raised about the ability of wheelchairs and the like to pass each other on such a narrow path – and how the hedgerow would quickly encroach, reducing its width even further.
A second access route for pedestrians and cyclists was proposed going south out of the site.
It would follow an existing public right of way across an open field – which is used for grazing – for 75metres to a crossing on Hilland Road.
A report to the committee mentioned the need to widen the right of way to allow for bikes, and possibly install fencing. But as the land is not owned by the developer, this may take some doing.
A third route would run from the south-eastern corner of the site along another public right of way, through Duckmoor Copse to Wooddale Lane.
Proposing the refusal, Ruth Fletcher (Lib Dem, Denne) said that, while the development would provide ‘much needed houses’, the travel routes were ‘sub-standard’ and posed ‘significant concerns’.
Both applications were refused on the grounds that the ‘sub-standard’ accesses went against local and national planning policy.
To view the applications, log on to public-access.horsham.gov.uk and search for DC/24/0749 and DC/24/0887.
