'˜Keep your hands off our lovely park'

The council has launched a public survey to gather information before coming up with a new seven-year park management and development plan.

The council says it will be making ‘important choices’ over the park’s development and is keen to gather public opinion beforehand.

The survey asks people how often they visit the park, what activities they take part in there, what facilities and events people would like to see there and what sort of problems people encounter.

But some have been quick to take to social media saying: leave the park alone. In messages on Facebook one woman said: “Leave well alone unless you want a riot.” And another said: “Maybe just let it be a ... park?”

Another woman said: “It is our park and doesn’t need to be developed, just looked after.”

Meanwhile, Sally Sanderson, chairman of the New Friends of Horsham Park, said: “The town is growing and use of Horsham Park is increasing. This shows the park is a critical amenity that promotes wellbeing in the community as well as attracting visitors.

“However, this level of usage results in wear and tear and more funds are needed. The park also needs to be protected as one of our heritage assets, as Crawley have done.

“This means that there should be no more erosion of green space such as the council’s plans for change of use to hardstanding for the old volley ball court.”

The park user survey can be found at http://socsi.in/ufByE

The closing date for comments is November 27.