LETTER: Benefits from Southwater site

Dr Thwaites said a new secondary school in Southwater would result in Horsham children being bussed into Southwater! Nonsense. Why would anyone do that when those children already have school places in Horsham?

The fact is there are already more than 640 children in Southwater who need a local secondary school. Add to that an average of two children per household in the 550 houses already planned for Southwater then Southwater will itself generate more more than enough demand for a 1,000-plus secondary school.

Building a secondary school north of Horsham would inevitably result in a change in the north Horsham (Holbrook, etc) school catchment area - resulting in children in North Horsham being excluded from attending Millais and Forest schools and having to cross the A264 dual carriageway to go to school.

A new school north of Horsham would bring no benefits and numerous deficits. Conversely, a new school in Southwater would bring only benefits and no deficits. NIMBYism and politics aside, it’s a no brainer.

Dr Thwaites refers to the Grade 2* farmhouse in Southwater but there are three Grade 2 buildings in the middle of the proposed north of Horsham development, plus other outstanding buildings of national architectural and historical interest.

None of us want our precious green fields built on but we are being forced into doing so, somewhere.

We just have to make the best of it. Continuing to bus 640-plus Southwater children into Horsham at an additional cost to ratepayers of £250,000 a year, in perpetuity, is not making the best of it.

C. MORRIS

Tennyson Close, Horsham