The latest news on Durand is that they submitted an appeal against the SDNPA's 2013 refusal to grant planning permission in June 2014, a public enquiry was booked for February 2015. On 11 December Durand withdrew their appeal, no reasons were given. Both the SDNPA and the local campaign group have now submitted a costs application to the Planning Inspectorate as considerable preparation work had been undertaken by legal counsel and planning experts. Meanwhile between 40 and 50 Year 9 children are being bussed to West Sussex to spend three nights a week in the former Wispers mansion in Stedham, using planning consent from 2010. No new application has been submitted but it is expected.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England has warned Mid Sussex District Council that its latest District Plan proposals, ones that will shape our District between now and 2031, fail to protect the District from rapid urbanisation. MSDC has just closed a public consultation exercise on its proposed Plan. “Adoption of a new Plan must not provide our Council with an implicit mandate to abandon Mid Sussex’s essentially rural character” says CPRE Sussex trustee, Michael Brown.