I will be one of the first to say that there is a crisis in housing in Crawley, but it should go without saying that new housing has to be built in the right place as well – and the West of Ifield is emphatically not that place.  Many local residents have expressed their horror at the prospect of losing the beautiful surrounds around Ifield golf course and I agree with them.  

Crawley Borough Council have been far from silent on the issue.  Labour councillors at CBC have been pursuing this part of the statutory Duty to Cooperate discussions with Horsham DC, which have formally recognised Crawley’s position is to strongly oppose the West of Ifield site. 

The decision on whether to allocate the site is, frustratingly, completely out of Crawley’s hands and rests ultimately with Horsham as the Local Planning Authority. 

It must be very inconvenient for the Lib Dems’ prospective Parliamentary candidate for Horsham that he is also their council’s Cabinet Member proposing to concrete over half of the north of Horsham District, despite his party going into last year’s local elections promising to save the countryside.  

This must make it very appealing for him to try to point the finger at others for this decision and suggest that Crawley is quietly supporting the Lib Dem council’s scheme.  To be abundantly clear.  We are not.  This is entirely untrue, some would use stronger words than I choose to describe their suggestions otherwise. 

Both in planning and political terms what Horsham District Council is proposing is a disaster. The piecemeal 3,000 houses “sitting on the fence” approach, typical of the Lib Dems, will open the door to the full 10,000 Homes England are after.  Moreover, a gradual smaller scale development in this way then bypasses many of the planning requirements for adequate infrastructure and other social provision. 

We all then end up with the worst of both worlds, particularly so as the Horsham planners know that the burden of demand on local services will end up on Crawley as by far the nearest place these new residents will live.

Cllr Michael Jones

Leader, Crawley Borough Council