SDA23 MIDHURST COMMUNITY HOSPITAL & 1-2 ROTHERFIELD MEWS
AN HISTORIC ESTATE VILLAGE IS BEING ASKED TO ACCOMMODATE A TOWN-SCALE DEVELOPMENT
No one is arguing that care homes are not needed. That is not the issue. The issue is scale.
SDA23 proposes a 66-bed care home in Easebourne Parish — home to 2,030 residentsaccording to the 2021 Census which includes numbers beyond Easebourne’s settlement.
That is not a minor village facility. It is a major institutional development.
It will bring substantial additional staff, visitors, servicing traffic, deliveries and parking demands to a site close to North Mill Bridge — the one direct route between Easebourne and Midhurst — a route that already struggles to cope with existing demand at peak times.
Most importantly, SDA23 does not stand alone. Alongside the proposed 66-bed care home,Easebourne is also expected to absorb:
• SDA22 – a further 9 homes at the former Easebourne School site
• SDA24 – 25 homes on green land west of Budgenor Lodge
This comes on top of development already approved or delivered:
• 20 homes at the former Easebourne School site
• 18 homes at Egmont Road• 20 homes at Cowdray Works YardThat is:
• 58 homes already approved or delivered
• 34 more homes proposed
• A 66-bed institutional development
And that is before taking account of the significant housing growth planned across Midhurst itself. Residents experience them cumulatively.
SDNPA describes Easebourne as a “historic estate village” and a “separate settlement” fromMidhurst. Yet the cumulative effect of these developments points in a very different direction.Not towards the conservation and enhancement of Easebourne. But towards the gradualtransformation of Easebourne from an historic estate village into an extension of Midhurst.
A National Park’s role is not simply to meet development targets. It is to “conserve andenhance” the places it has been entrusted to protect for future generations.
That principle sits at the heart of SDNPA’s award-winning Local Plan.
Residents are entitled to ask whether the proposals for Easebourne reflect that ambition.Because conserving and enhancing a historic estate village is very different from graduallyturning it into an extension of a market town in order to meet housing targets.
