LETTER: Genuine distress for communities

Both Mid Sussex and Horsham district councils 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, seven miles away, is already at capacity.

The area has historically suffered from flooding. This will increase with rising sea levels.

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 Devil’s Dyke would be ruined forever.

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

One of Mayfield’s directors is Lord Matthew Taylor who overhauled Britain’s new planning laws (the NPPF). This is a conflict of interest. Locals should vote to get this Government out of office.

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

Mayfield has tried to set one community against another in desperate attempts to gain local support.

Mayfield 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!

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

The Mayfield 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.

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

The carbon footprint created by Mayfield 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

‘They create a desolation and call it progress’ - Tacitus

SIMON HOLLINGWORTH

Berrylands Farm, Sayers Common