The complaints about West Sussex county council’s intention to move the town’s fire station from the town centre to Cheals roundabout are still appearing in the letters pages of the local papers.

None of the letters mention the North-East sector in relation to this. The reason I am referring to it is that last week’s Crawley Observer had a public notice in it about a public enquiry regarding an application for:

Erection of up to 1900 dwellings, 5000 sq m of use class B1, B2 & B* employment floorspace, 2500 sq m of retail floorspace, a community hall, first and middle school, park & ride, a fire station, recreational open space, landscaping, the relocation of the 132kv ohv power line adjacent to the M23, infrastructure and means of access.

Shouldn’t WSCC wait a while and see how that public enquiry goes?

I accept that Wimpey and Beazer Homes are trying to force the issue of development in that area which got put on hold while the airport expansion was going on, but its always possible they will succeed.

Crawley Borough Council have a public notice on the same page about public consultation relating to that area and whether it should go into the local development framework – probably forced on them by the representations from Wimpey and Beazer.

Why not wait and see whether a new fire station is going to get built as part of planning gain before pressing to build another one at our expense?