Is this the first success of Horsham Labour Party's 'spot the blot' campaign, launched earlier this year? It is certainly a welcome development.Ray Chapman, secretary of Horsham LP, launched this campaign at the beginning of November and a couple of weeks later he had a couple of responses. One of them was drawing attention to Bryce Lodge, formerly a residential care home but now a derelict site.
Horsham Labour thinks that such sites should be used to provide much-needed affordable housing, and that generally the county council should be selling parcels of unwanted land to district councils or registered social landlords for development. In this case it looks like the county council agree with us and we hope it is the first of many such arrangements.
According to the press report, the site will be sold to a housing association to provide 38 units of 'predominantly affordable housing'. There will be 32 units of affordable housing, 5 supported living units and one unit for staff accommodation.
What we do not understand is why such good news is tucked away on page 14 of today's West Sussex County Times, instead of being linked somehow to the very prominent report of our housing petition being handed in.