Disposing of Horsham’s Drill Hall is not what residents want

So the Conservatives running Horsham Council are once again planning to dispose of a community facility against the will of local people.

When the council handed over use of another community facility, the old town hall, to a restaurant chain, they said that the Drill Hall would more than adequately cater for the town’s needs for a community facility.

But instead of using the income from the town hall to invest in developing the Drill Hall into modern community facility, they have allowed the Hall to decline to the point that they can now claim that it is no longer financially viable, showing complete disregard for not only the community value but the heritage value of the building they intend to demolish.

The people of Horsham are right to feel outraged and the representative of the body that gifted the hall to the community is right to be annoyed.

Independent review of historic Horsham building’s future welcomed

Richard Putnam, president of the Queen’s Regiment Association, is right to say that the council should not consider the need for 20 affordable flats as justification for demolishing the hall, and it is disingenuous of the council to suggest that the demand for affordable housing is their justification, particularly as there has been a consistent and deliberate failure to ensure that the affordable housing needs of the community are met through the council’s own planning processes.

Indeed, the most obvious indicator of the lack of interest the councillors running the council have in delivering in the interests of local people is that failure.

If the council were interested in building the homes we need, why is it that they have failed to ensure that developers that have built thousands of new homes around Horsham met their obligations under the council’s own planning policies?

Why is is that the council planning committee seeks every excuse to turn down applications submitted by Saxon Weald Housing Association, including most ludicrously the recent objection to the colour of the homes, whilst waving through every scheme from private developers?

Why is that the council’s much heralded housing company, Horsham District Homes, only currently plans to build a handful of homes at a time when the there are several hundred applicants on the housing register.

The huge developments that have sprung up around our town have resulted in Horsham council becoming one of the richest in the country.

The council could well afford to invest in the Drill Hall to develop it into a state of the art, revenue generating, community asset.

The council could well afford to ensure that the homes our communities need are built without destroying a part of the town’s heritage. They simply choose not to.

If we as a community want the councillors to make a different choice, it’s time to make our voices heard.