Consultation Events – September 2015
A series of Workshop events were held throughout September 2015 and following these events a number of people completed a questionnaire or emailed their comments to the Parish Council.
The completed questionnaires and emails may be viewed by any member of the public in the Parish Council office between 10.00 a.m. and 12.00 noon on any Wednesday when the office is open to the public. (Please note that names and addresses have been redacted).
Additional information that you may also wish to view includes:
- Workshop Feedback report
- Notes taken by Scribes during the Workshop events – and the Council would like to thank all scribes who volunteered to assist this process.
- The Documents presented at these events.
For “Site specific” results of the sustainability assessment and to view any subsequent corrections to the assessments results please visit the NP Site Assessment Results.
Consultation Event 24th January 2015
If you were not able to drop in on Saturday 24/01/15 to see the draft policies and the results of the Sustainability Assessment for the sites submitted by landowners under the Neighbourhood Plan, you can view the documents presented at this event and leave your views / comments at the bottom of this page. You can also see the feedback on this process that was collected on the day from members of the community who attended this event.
For “Site specific” results of the sustainability assessment and to view any subsequent corrections to the assessment results please visit the NP Site Assessment Results.
What do you think? – Which sites do you think are suitable for housing and other development?
What do you think? This is not simply whether you like a site or not and it is not a vote. Why do you think a site is suitable (or not) for development and how will it (or won’t it) contribute towards achieving the updated Objectives of the Neighbourhood Plan.
Your views are vital as they will guide the choice of sites allocated for development in the Neighbourhood Plan.
To see a summary of the views expressed so far – please click here
Additionally, the NP Steering Group has listened to what you have told them so far regarding the Vision and Objectives for the Neighbourhood Plan and are now at the stage where they have several draft Neighbourhood Plan Policies which were also presented on Saturday.
What do you think of these draft policies – have they got it right / wrong?
You can post your comments / views on this page or alternatively email them to the Steering Group via the contact page on this website (Please clearly indicate that they are Neighbourhood Plan comments in the “Subject” box). Either way, please remember that all comments will fall into the public domain and may be published.
We look forward to hearing from you
Adobe Acrobat reader is required to view the documents on this website. 
I commented on your facebook page but that medium seems to contain little attention from the community so I add my thoughts within this forum.
It was said in a response to my facebook remarks that I had issues, that seems a disingenuous remark particularly uttered from within a cloak of anonymity. Is it an issue to express a concern for our Village, the community in which we have spent most of our life and within which our children have been safely born and nurtured? A village is like the earth, not deigned, it simply grows, evolving over time, like nature itself, in harmony, a plan, on the scale suggested is a desecration.
The trouble with your Plan is that it does not consider the issues i.e. infrastructure, environment, reason for such development it therefore is not a plan.
We have a wonderfully vibrant population many of whom are actively involved in Village life, but decline over the last decades there has been, the loss of many small businesses, shops, forge, motor car garages and at least for now the Post Office. Do open your eyes and witness the congestion of parked cars along the main thoroughfare, pedestrians including children and mums with prams have to cross between large parked vehicles unseen by passing traffic negotiating the obstacle course presented, a blind bend at the eastern end, where our village Grocers (Sayers & Carter) used to be, potentially this will prove fatal.
The plan is for a target of 100 new homes. Well we shall see with what rigour that number is regulated.
100 new homes, 400 possible new residents, 200 possible young children, 200 possible extra vehicles.
Infrastructure, one shop (for which Bridget and Clive we are so thankful) one small village school, infrequent bus service, congested disintegrating roads.
Who will be buying these homes? Affordable housing; poorly constructed? subsidised? We have affordable housing, what was the council estate, good quality on the whole, many sold off heavily subsidised, even now council housing has to be offered at even higher discounts to long standing tenants, by diktat from Westminster who also say build more affordable housing, I sense mixed up thinking!
Dear Mr Staples
Thank you for your comments.
With reference to the Facebook communication and in response to the numerous questions raised by you, the comment from the NPSG was that “you seem to have lots of issues you would like to discuss about the Neighbourhood Plan.” and you were invited to come to one of our open sessions to discuss further. It was not meant in any way as disingenuous.
Almost everything you raise here supports the very reason why we need to have a Neighbourhood Plan. To control development, to review and improve infrastructure, to minimise environmental impact, to improve off street parking in any development, to ensure we keep essential services, to improve road safety etc. It is not just about housing. Without a Neighbourhood Plan there will be no control over what the Parish needs and I would like to reiterate a point that the Parish Council has made consistently since it embarked upon this process in 2011:
This is our plan, the communities, not the Parish Council’s, and is being developed by volunteers who are villagers giving a huge amount of their time freely to ensure we all get what we need to keep Horsted Keynes the special place it is.
Once we have a draft plan everyone will be consulted on that plan and you will ultimately be given the opportunity to vote on whether you approve it.
Thanks again for taking the time to engage in the process.
Too concentrated in village. There should be some smaller developments outside of the village which, we believe wil attract a community tax which can invested to develop facilities within the village.
Will any of these 100 homes be made affordable for local people to buy? The current house price in Horsted Keynes is pricing local people out of the village.
Will anything be done about local roads and services in the village? If 100 new homes get built that will be around 200 extra cars driving through the village and a large increase of children trying to get into the village school.
HK 012: THE OLD RECTORY, CHURCH LANE
Introducing c40 new dwellings on this site would result in a very significant increase in traffic along the southern end of Church Lane, and Leighton Road, neither of which is wide enough for two cars to pass each other. For that reason alone the site should not be considered suitable.
In addition, there is the issue of access to the school, and to homes in the northern end of Church Lane. There are already very significant concerns about the safety of children walking down Church Lane to the school, and numerous “near misses” (as the headteacher calls them) each term as cars attempt to negotiate through the children walking to and from school. Your proposal suggests that there is “potential for new pedestrian route from village to church/school, bypassing Church Lane” but it is not clear where this will be, and whether it will involve children and parents walking a significant detour to and from the school.
Further, it is not clear how this suggestion is intended to protect the residents of Church Lane, or users of the mid Sussex county path, from increased traffic movements along this narrow lane.
The PC’s “vision” for 2031 includes the following: “traffic management measures have been installed to regulate on street parking and improve road safety”, and you cite the objective of minimising the impact of road traffic on the village. HK 012 represents the very opposite of these.
It is contrary to policy T4, and paragraph 29.11, of the Mid Sussex Local Plan 2004.