Council’s Ecology Report Confirms Need to Keep Rookwood Green

The results of an independent ecological survey commissioned by Horsham District Council have now been published and its findings support the widely held view that there are significant reasons for rejecting Rookwood Golf Club as a potential site for housing.

It finds that this land is ideally suited to be retained and managed as a public golf course or mixing many uses such as a country park would provide.

The report confirms the rich natural heritage of the Rookwood site. The northern half in particular is a verdant environmental zone that contains an important woodland as pointed out by the friends of Warnham Nature Reserve, which it adjoins, while the south has a rich ecological mix of habitat and species of insects, reptiles, birds and mammals. It provides linking green corridors for wildlife on both sides of the Warnham Road and to the river Arun beyond. Wooded boundaries that criss-cross both parts of the site also provide important habitat.

Any proposed development would need major access roads to reach a small area of land for development, destroying a long section of Ancient Woodland Indicators on the boundary.  Other species such as domestic cats and dogs would be introduced which would also be detrimental to the wild life in the Nature Reserve.

Keep Rookwood Green Alliance are delighted that Horsham District Council has commissioned this survey which recognises that Rookwood is not the right place to build and points HDC towards the conclusion that this is not a site worth developing.

We are most gratified to note that this independent report confirms so much of what the Friends of Warnham Local Nature Reserve reported in their local plan response to HDC This doubly underlines the need to retain this beautiful space as Horsham’s green lung.