Outline plans, from Reside Developments Ltd, to build on land north of The Rosary, were refused in September 2020. Since then, Reside has lodged an appeal. The council can no longer demonstrate that it has a five-year supply of deliverable housing land – a fact that would stand against it during the appeal. So during a meeting of the planning committee on Tuesday (February 15), members will be asked to approve another reason for refusal, this time relating to water neutrality. In September, Natural England published a position statement on water neutrality, meaning applicants now have to show that their developments would not increase demand on water supplies. Horsham, which was identified by the Environment Agency, as being in an area of serious water stress, is supplied by Southern Water from its Sussex North Water Resource Zone. Essentially, the fear is that the current rate of water abstraction – the process of taking water from surface or underground sources – is having an impact on protected sites in the Arun Valley. A report to the planning committee said that, as the appeal documents filed by Reside did not include a Water Neutrality Statement, it was ‘not possible to conclude with sufficient certainty’ that the development would not harm the integrity of those sites. To view the application in full, log on to public-access.horsham.gov.uk and search for DC/20/1697.