​27th July 2014

Dear All

We have added a new article to the website today detailing Mayfields plans as shown in their submission to Horsham District Council  – to see the scale of their proposals logon to our website at \http:lambs.org.uk\

Thank you to everyone who has contacted the County Times with their response to the Mayfields submission.  Please do take the time to send your views on the Mayfields plans to ct.news@jpress.co.uk. The deadline for this week is tomorrow night (28th July).  To ensure we get fair press coverage, it is important the local papers are aware of the strength of local feeling against Mayfields so we would ask that you continue to send letters for use in future issues.  

Below are a list of the key points. 

·         This scheme is not supported by elected local councils, local MPs or by local communities.

·         Both Mid Sussex and Horsham Districts have made provisions for housing which do not include this development.

·         This area is a Greenfield site which is partly on a flood plain, includes many miles of ancient hedgerows and is valuable habitat for many endangered and listed species of wildlife.

·         The site is not on a railway line and has little or no existing infrastructure. The nearest rail service, 7 miles away, is already at capacity.

·         The area has historically suffered from flooding.

·         There is a great risk that increasing the flow of waste water into the river will cause devastating flooding downstream.

·         This area also suffers from water shortages in the summer.

·         Despite ridiculous claims that the settlement would be self contained it would soon become a commuter town causing terrible congestion.

·         The local services would become overloaded – hospitals, schools, emergency services.

·         Historic local villages like Twineham and Wineham, which date back to Anglo Saxon times, would be wiped out.

·         The continued uncertainty hanging over the area is causing Blight and has seriously affected property values.

·         The issue is causing real and genuine distress in the local communities.

·         The stunning view from Devils Dyke would be ruined forever.

·         There are enough Brownfield sites in the UK to build one and half million homes – so no excuse for destroying the countryside.

·         One of Mayfields’ Directors is Lord Matthew Taylor who overhauled Britain’s new planning laws (the NPPF). He stands to make a fortune if the new town goes ahead. This is a conflict of interest.

·         The Government has stressed many times the importance of ‘Garden Cities’ being locally led. This is absolutely not the case with Mayfields.

·         Mayfields has behaved in a dishonest and manipulative way – trying to set one community against another in desperate attempts to gain local support.

·         Mayfields has been subjecting local councillors to considerable pressure in an effort to persuade them to support the scheme – They have even sent letters to their private addresses. Our councillors should be commended for resisting!

·         Mayfields is claiming to have consulted with local people; that is nonsense. One meeting with a worried resident does not constitute a consultation.

·         The Mayfields’ Park and Ride service would be the only one in the country designed to get people out of a town not into one. People simply wouldn’t use it, preferring to drive themselves directly to the station or work, causing chaos.

·         Mayfields’ fast coach service to London would be a joke – it is impossible to drive to London quickly from here!

·         The carbon footprint created by Mayfields would be immense. No amount of wind turbines or green initiatives could compensate for the destruction of countryside on that scale, or for the tens of thousands of extra car journeys. 

Together we will defeat Mayfields

Thank you

LAMBS

Mayfields have objected to Horsham Council’s District Plan which proposes to build 13,000 houses over 20 years.  Mayfields say thousands more homes are needed on top of the planned 13,000 and suggest the figure should be closer to 24,000.   This would mean a huge increase in building throughout the area in addition to the new town itself. The Horsham half of the new town plan accounts for only 5,000 of this increase – the other 5,000 being in Mid Sussex.

The County Times have this week printed details of Mayfields submission and we would urge all our supporters to contact the paper this week at ct.news@jpress.co.uk to let them know your views. 

The article is here County Times and you can see the Mayfields submission at:
http://horsham-consult.limehouse.co.uk/common/search/advanced_search.jsp?id=0&eventId=22692&page=0&pageSize=20&sortMode=response_date&lookingFor=representations&tab=find&searchQuery=mayfield&x=0&y=0

and click the PDF at the bottom.  The direct link is on the LAMBS website.

If localism is to work, we need to ensure there is no doubt of the opposition for the number of houses Mayfields say are necessary – 1,000 per year as opposed to 650 recommended by Horsham..

with thanks

LAMBS

Dear friends,

Thank you very much indeed for signing my petition “STOP TWO LORDS FROM BUILDING 10,000 HOUSES ON RURAL SUSSEX LAND” – this issue means a great deal to all of us and I really appreciate your support. We have over 1,696 signatures so far!

The more people who sign the petition, the more chance we have of winning this important issue to save our wildlife. I’m emailing you to ask if you can go one step further and share the petition with your friends and family:

SHARE ON FACEBOOK

SHARE ON TWITTER

Posting the campaign on Facebook or Twitter only takes a second, but it will mean that hundreds of people see the petition and can join our movement. If you can email the link around as well, all the better – that will allow us to spread the word to people who don’t use social media too.

 http://Bit.ly/1rcq7E2   OR   https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-two-lords-from-building-10-000-houses-on-rural-sussex-land

Please help to STOP the building of a new town in Sussex for 10,000 homes, over 30,000 people. There simply isn’t the infrastructure to sustain such an invasion.

-Hospitals are already unable to cope with present numbers and there are NO plans to build a new one grossly inconveniencing the local population.

-There is not enough fresh water to supply and sustain this huge development so there will be water shortages and will impact on the already overstretched sewerage treatment works.

-Vast areas of countryside – greenfield and greenbelt land, where many Red Listed and Schedule 1 Protected birds live, including Osprey, Lapwing & Barn Owls, as well as other protected species of wildlife such as Bats and Badgers will be concreted over, destroying their habitat and ruining the countryside forever.

 – All amenities would be overstretched, terrible traffic congestion on already full roads and this will open the door to other large developments. – Rural Sussex will turn into an urban concrete sprawl with strategic gaps closed.

 – Council will be unable to sustain usual road repairs, flooding, fire and ambulance services, police, doctors or schools with such a huge population moving into the area.

 – The proposed area is a floodplain.

 – Sussex villages are being ruined and countryside eroded, wildlife destroyed. These houses would be better built north of London within the HS2 proposed railway line.

There needs to be more balanced house building and development plans spread evenly across the country not predominantly in the South East, where vast areas of land have already been built upon and green-belt and green-field land criminally ignored.

Thank you very much for standing with me on this issue to help preserve our wildlife and greenbelt land.

VICTORIA

​To All Our Supporters

Thank you for your amazing generosity, we are more than half way towards meeting our target to fund our Barrister, planning consultant, and associated experts to represent us at the Horsham District Planning Hearing.

We have received many donations from residents throughout the area, mostly from the local villages, but also from as far afield as Lewes and Haywards Heath.  Henfield tops the list for the largest number of donations, showing that villagers there are acutely aware of the detrimental effect Mayfields would have on their thriving community.  Twineham has currently raised the most money; but we are so grateful to every single donor, both large and small, and are aiming to write to you all individually.

A special thank you to the pivotal land owners at the centre of the proposed new town site who have not only resisted Mayfields’ seduction but are actively supporting our campaign both monetarily and practically.  The warning from those on the front line is that the spin currently being used by Mayfields is, ‘you are the last ones left’, which we all know not to be the case.  Remember these people will say and do anything to try and get their way!

Please, please do try and donate what you can – we are confident that with the right representation, we will be able to make a very sound case in front of the planning inspector. Even if he feels Horsham District needs to produce more houses than the 13,500 in their proposed district plan through to 2031, he will be left in no doubt that the Mayfields scheme is the least sustainable, least deliverable option available and should not be encouraged under any circumstances.

Peter Freeman, only this week, criticised LAMBS for ‘not looking at the issues in light of the housing crisis which is in the papers every day and is a local concern not just a national one.’ We are sure you will agree that both our District Councils and Parish Councils are working hard at delivering sustainable and appropriate housing for our areas.  We do not need four individuals who have no association whatsoever with Mid Sussex or Horsham districts to add another 10,000 houses to the tens of thousands of new homes already being planned, which are already in addition to the thousands currently under construction or recently completed.

 You can donate online today at www.lambs.org.uk or send a donation direct to the LAMBS NatWest bank account:

LAMBS: Sort Code 535039 Account number 55355846

Monthly direct debits can also be set up to this account or you can send a cheque made payable to LAMBS to:

Anthony Watts Williams
LAMBS
Suite 204
33 Queen Street
Horsham RH13 5AA

 With best wishes and sincere thanks

LAMBS