Thank you to everyone who responded to the consultation exercise by down loading the draft plan and completing the online questionnaire, by submitting an email response, or simply by visiting our exhibition in Swan Walk over the two weekends in early March.
It was great meeting so many people over the course of those weekends. We had many good conversations; some that were challenging; many that were supportive and lots that were both!
The tenor of these conversations has been confirmed by the findings of the consultation exercise questionnaires. All together 147 questionnaires were completed together with 23 written responses.
The detailed analysis of the responses and revision of the draft plan is ongoing; however all 15 draft policies were overwhelmingly endorsed by respondents as can be seen by the graph below.
So what are the next steps?
Once the analysis of the consultation responses is completed the plan will be revised and submitted to Horsham District Council; at which point the plan will be reviewed by an Independent Examiner. Providing the Examiner is satisfied (and subject to any revision that Examiner may require) the plan will then be submitted to a public referendum, and if approved will be adopted by Horsham District Council as one of their planning documents.
Doesn’t a neighbourhood forum have a finite life?
Yes, Neighbourhood Forums such as Horsham Blueprint have a “statutory designation” of 5 years. Blueprint’s current designation expires on the 5th of June. Therefore to complete the above steps Blueprint needs to be re-designated as a Neighbourhood Forum by Horsham District Council. To do this we need demonstrate that:
a) we have a minimum of 21 members supporting the re-designation; and have
b) an Annual General Meeting (AGM) resolution to continue.
Our provisional AGM date is 7:30pm on 19th May 2020 (it might be by ZOOM or Skype if the lockdown continues); but in the meantime please demonstrate your support for the re- designation of Horsham Blueprint by completing the membership form that can down loaded here
Best wishes
Andrew Cooke
on behalf of Horsham Blueprint