Homes England's report on West of Ifield consultation branded 'work of fiction'

The 17-page report summarises the feedback received in October and November last year on the first phase of plans to build 10,000 homes on the outskirts of Crawley.

But members of Save West of Ifield were less than impressed by what they read, accusing Homes England of ‘cherry picking comments’ and putting a ‘positive spin’ on things.

Fenella Maitland-Smith said: “This report is a work of fiction in terms of presenting the sentiment and content of people’s responses – the fact that the written and verbal responses were overwhelmingly negative is ignored, and instead the few positive comments are cherry picked and presented prominently above any others.

“A professional report would have clear analysis of the balance of positive to negative responses, and would present data on engagement and responses clearly rather than the confusing and meaningless collection of diagrams and word-clouds which we have been presented with.

“I’m surprised a government agency would put it’s name to such an unprofessional piece of work.”

The consultation was the third relating to the proposed first phase of work, which includes building 3,000 homes and closing Rusper Road to traffic at the edge of the new neighbourhood, re-opening it on the other side of the planned Western Link Road.

The development of a new neighbourhood is largely reliant on the outcome of Horsham District Council’s Local Plan Review – a review which has been delayed a number of times over the past two years.

Should the Local Plan allocate the land west of Ifield for development, an outline planning application will need to be submitted.

In its report, Homes England said a Statement of Community Involvement would be submitted as part of the application, including feedback from all consultations.

A spokesman added: “Our consultation summary report provides an overview of the most recent consultation events for West of Ifield. The report includes verbatim comments and automatically generated ‘word-clouds’, to summarise the feedback received and ensure it represents the views of all respondents.

“It is right that the report shows a range of responses from those that took the time to provide feedback.

“We are confident that our summary report provides a clear view of the areas that are of greatest concern to respondents, as well as the areas that had more support.

“Whilst our summary report, by its nature, cannot show every response, these are available to view online.

“We will use the feedback received to inform our future plans and will provide further updates in due course.”

During a public meeting on Wednesday (March 15), the leader of Crawley Borough Council reasserted the authority’s strong opposition to the entire West of Ifield plan.

Speaking during Crawley Question Time at the new town hall, Michael Jones said there were ‘serious problems’ with the proposed development and that Homes England had ‘fudged the entire issue over the link road’.

He predicted that the road connections would be ‘so inadequate’ that traffic problems would be ‘an absolute nightmare’ not only for the new neighbourhoods but also for Ifield, Maidenbower and West Green.

Mr Jones added: “If and when the planning application comes to Horsham District Council, we will oppose it in the strongest possible terms.”