Save West of Ifield protest to Government

A petition of over 5,500 signatures against the plans has been delivered to the offices of Homes England and the Deprtment for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

As well as letters to the Secretary of State - Michael Gove - and Homes England's CEO - Peter Denton, pointing out the flaws in the Government's methods for calculating housing need, Homes England's behaviours towards Horsham and Crawley residents and concerns about the impacts of the proposed development West of Ifield.

The letter and the petition can be found on the Save West of Ifield website: https://www.savewestofifield.co.uk .

The delegation also visited the Houses of Parliament but Jeremy Quin MP was not available. Fenella Maitland-Smith, chair of the campaign group said: "It's time to make our concerns heard at a national level.

"Our campaign is not just about the West of ifield, it's also about Government policy to concentrate the majority of house-building into expensive areas, and onto greenfield sites, to benefit developers.

"They may claim to have switched to 'brownfield first' but really it mean brownfield as well as greenfield. And it's the wrong type of housing.

"No-one is getting the social housing so desperately needed. Until the government changes the way that local housing targets are calculated we will continue to get the wrong houses in the wrong places."

SWOI is a group of local residents, councillors and activists who are opposing Homes England's plans to build up to 10,000 new homes focussed on Ifield Golf Club and surrounding agricultural land. There is real and understandable concern about the impact that this development will have on local infrastructure and services.

www.savewestofifield.co.uk