Abstraction concerns halt local planning process

A water-stressed West Sussex council has halted its local planning process because of concerns that abstraction in the local area could be causing damage to rare nature habitats.

Horsham District Council announced on 27 October that the timetable for its local plan – the blueprint for the district’s development – has been postponed.

The authority had been on the verge of submitting its plan for examination by the Planning Inspectorate but a full meeting of the council to approve the document has been shelved.

Horsham had already announced on 15 October that it could not grant planning consents for individual developments unless they are water neutral and therefore do not increase overall demand for water across the area.

Both moves followed the submission in September of a position statement by Natural England, expressing concern about abstraction in the Sussex North Water Supply Zone, which also covers the neighbouring authorities of Chichester and Crawley.

The government’s statutory nature conservation adviser said development within the zone must not exacerbate water stress. It added that decisions on planning applications within the area should await the completion of an evolving water neutrality strategy for the area.

On an interim basis, the agency has issued interim advice that developments can be given the go ahead if they minimise water use, complete an occupancy-based water budget and demonstrate that they can achieve strict water targets such as 85l litres per person, per day.

According to a technical report commissioned to inform Horsham’s local plan, Natural England is “very concerned” about the impact of the abstraction from the Hardham borehole on water levels and flows in the designated Arun Valley Special Area of Conservation.

It said Hardham is a “key part” of Southern Water’s supply strategy for Horsham and that Natural England is working with the Environment Agency and the company to try to identify a “long term more sustainable water supply”.

But the report warned that supplies are currently so tight in the Horsham area that achieving water neutrality would involve an “unprecedented” restriction for the UK on water use in new build properties.

In addition, water neutrality would mean a very high level of retrofitting of existing stock, which the report said is considered unfeasible, given that there is only a “limited amount” the local planning authority can do with regard to retrofitting of existing dwellings.

Proposals in the existing draft local plan policies would achieve 45% water neutrality for Horsham district, according to the report.

Councillor Paul Clarke, leader of Horsham council, said: “It is clear the water mitigation issue may impact our ability to deliver development in the future and we will need to consider this as part of our work on the local plan.

“We will continue to work together with our neighbouring councils, parishes and other stakeholders to better understand what we can and will do.”