Following the EU referendum decision, is there an opportunity for major change to policies that will establish a sound future for farming? CPRE has produced a report which identifies a range of recommendations to increase the diversity, sustainability and resilience of the farming sector on which so much of our countryside depends.
Read the report New Model Farming on the CPRE website
Home page pic © Helen Haden
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Arundel Bypass: videos show the impact on Binsted
Written by CPRE Sussex
CPRE Sussex and the South Downs Society have written a joint letter to the new Secretary of State for Transport to highlight our support for what is locally know as the 'purple route' in relation to the current options identification for improvements to the A27 at Arundel, which will go out for consultation in spring 2017.
CPRE Sussex and the South Downs Society have written a joint letter to the new Secretary of State for Transport to highlight our support for what is locally know as the 'purple route' in relation to the current options identification for improvements to the A27 at Arundel, which will go out for consultation in spring 2017.
Members and friends joined us for a busy AGM on the 16th July, the first truly hot day this summer, at the stunning Barcombe Village Hall.
Two A-level students are currently undertaking a placement with CPRE Sussex to carry out research into biodiversity and land management. The research, which focuses on butterfly populations, is being carried out over the summer and will form the basis of a funding bid for further research next year which will aim to show the value of undesignated countryside in terms of biodiversity. Undesignated countryside is under threat in many parts of Sussex.
Letter: Developer claims that the 35% affordable homes stipulated is a ‘proposal’ not a ‘requirement’.
Written by Roger F SmithLetter published by the West Sussex County Times, 18 August 2016
Sir,
Developer claims that the 35% affordable homes stipulated as a Policy by the Horsham District Planning Framework is a ‘proposal’ not a ‘requirement’.
An outline planning application for ‘up to 2750 dwellings’ and a ‘business park’ (DC/16/1677) North of Horsham is now out for public consultation.
District Councillors who spoke and voted for the vast urban extension on countryside North of Horsham argued that that this contentious country-side consuming development would provide affordable homes for Horsham’s young people who would otherwise have to reside outside of Horsham District.
It should therefore be of considerable concern to our elected representatives that the proportion of affordable homes offered by the applicant is 30% (therefore 825), not the 35% (therefore 962)stipulated by the Council’s adopted HDPF (Policy 16) for sites providing 15 or more dwellings; a shortfall therefore of 137 affordable homes.
Furthermore, according to the applicant’s ‘Statement of Housing for Local Needs’, submitted in support of the application, the delivery of 137 of the 825 affordable homes is conditional on “the delivery of new office and business space on the North Horsham Business Park”.
Moreover, the applicant seeks to justify the less than 35% affordable homes on the spurious grounds that the 35% required by the HDPF is a ‘proposal’ when in reality the 35% is a requirement stipulated in an adopted local plan, not a ‘proposal’.
District Councillors will recall that Mr Salter, the Planning Inspector who examined the HDPF, approved the inclusion of North of Horsham as a strategic site with the understanding that it would deliver 35% affordable housing, not 30%.
It remains to be seen whether Councillors will insist that the HDPF requirement for 35% affordable homes be met. If not, a vast tract of countryside will be concreted over for the financial benefit of investors without meeting the District’s need for affordable homes.
Yours faithfully,
Dr R F Smith
For CPRE Sussex (Horsham District)
The Brexit vote offers chance for farming to become more diverse and environmentally resilient, say countryside campaigners
A new report released by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) argues that farming in England needs to become more diverse to prove environmentally resilient and publicly accessible over the coming years.
