LETTER: Passion for village

Firstly, I was at the meeting and it was heart warming to see the turn out and passion for our village. Secondly it is abundantly clear that if the builders decide to turn up for such meetings, they consider they are doing you a great favour as it is also abundantly clear they are not interested one iota what the public think and any referendum in our favour will be totally ignored.

It clearly is about land grabbing and building for profit using the latest Government edict regarding the need for houses as the excuse, an edict that is never genuinely defined as to why? Some builders use the ‘there is a requirement in your district’ often using the word ‘affordable’ which appears to have actually fallen by the wayside to be replaced with ‘first time buyers’ or the latest one indicating a sudden explosion in the West Sussex area, ‘children aged 30+ having to live at home with their parents due to housing shortage’.

We are then given an outline price range of £250,000 up to £650,000 for executive homes, the £250,000 houses being the lesser number being built which contradicts why they are building in the first place. The other concern is the numbers quoted, which history indicates is usually a ‘foot in the door’ figure which gradually escalates e.g. Bolnore Village. I would also suggest much of the analysis used was carried out after midnight as the numbers of cars, speeds and congestion did not bear any resemblance to reality.

We are being brow beaten into allowing our villages to be turned into small towns or just a suburb of something bigger with no serious concern about flood risk, lack of infrastructure, railways, suitable hospitals, wildlife and the quality of life we already have, none of these are of any interest. These are things ‘we’ will have to sort out after the builders have gone, a major task in its own right. Very soon if the builders have their way Lindfield, Cuckfield et al will be gone and Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill will be one huge town. It is extremely disappointing that our MP is not seen to be offering any support.

Alan Prestwich

Summerhill Grange, Lindfield

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