Let’s stop the  proposed development West of Ifield

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HDC Local Plan Examination - December 2024

1.        After three days of Examination hearings the Planning Inspector cancelled the remaining hearings because of “significant concerns about the soundness and legal compliance of the plan in respect of a number of areas”.  He pledged to “set these out in detail in a separate letter as soon as I possibly can”.  See:  Inspectors Hearings Holding Letter

2.       SWOI had spoken on two of the three days of hearings on the following matters:

a.       HDC’s inadequate community involvement – many residents considered that HDC’s Regulation 19 consultation process was inaccessible and non-inclusive, particularly due to digital exclusion. See SWOI-Examination-verbal-statement-Community-Involvement

b.       HDC’s inadequate Sustainability Appraisal – the scoring and appraisal of the housing sites was not sound due to a lack of underlying data and insufficient consideration of possible adverse effects. See SWOI-Examination-verbal-statement-Sustainability Appraisal, and

c.       HDC’s inadequate spatial strategy – Crawley not recognised in their ‘settlement hierarchy’ and unclear what WOI is in spatial terms - just an allocation without any real connection to Crawley – and not a new town, or a new settlement. See: Save West of Ifield 1191263      

3.       Last week HDC wrote to the Inspector saying that they were surprised at the cancellation, and urged the Inspector to “reconsider his position and to contemplate reopening the examination hearings in the new year”. In response to the Inspector’s concerns about unmet housing need HDC suggested that “there is no reason why the examination should not consider whether it is expedient to add further sites to deliver housing to meet its need”.  In other words, HDC would like more time to add more sites into the Plan.  See:  HDC Local Plan Examination Hearing Letter 

4.       We now wait for the Inspector’s deatiled letter to HDC.  He may agree that HDC can do further work on the Plan and the Examination can then resume.  Or he may judge that the problems with the Plan are too great and they must start work on a new Plan.  We’ll see. 

5.       What can we say about the implications for WOI?  Not much at this stage.  The Inspector’s main job is to make sure the Plan delivers new houses in line with Government targets, plus additional housing for the unmet need of neighbouring councils, unless there are exceptional reasons not to.  And he may judge that water neutrality is not an exceptional reason.  On the one hand this could increase the pressure to keep WOI in the Plan.  But on the other hand:

a.       There are several other large sites which can provide water on-site and the developers and lawyers for these sites are fighting hard to get their sites into the Plan,   

b.       The Inpsector has already expressed his concern that the effects of WOI on Crawley have not been considered – which of course is compounded by CBC’s strong opposition to WOI. This could be enough to require WOI’s removal from the Plan, and

c.       WOI is recognised as a site with a lot of issues which will be expensive to mitigate – transport, water supply, sewage treatment, Ifield Golf Course, and biodiversity.  It seems Homes England are starting to show their concern about viability – pushing back against providing 40% affordable housing and against adequate mitigation for the loss of IGC. So WOI is looking like a much less sound site compared with some of these others of a similar size.   

6.       We of course continue to monitor the situation and plan accordingly. And we’ll keep supporters informed.  

Peter Lamb - Crawley Labour :