Had to leave before end but I feel that the big question is when does a large village become a town and if we want that to happen to Forest Row. It strikes me that by developing to the North and West we open the possibility of merging into Ashurst Wood - (do we know what plans there are for housing growth there? )- with the risk of creating a ribbon development into East Grinstead and beyond... Ashurst Row or Forest Wood?!

It would be good to have a more open discussion about what we envisage Forest Row to be like in 20 years time and then work back from there on what we need to do to get there and what the plan can do to help facilitate this.

The Councillor from Ripe talked of the benefits of housing - what are these really and how do they compare with the disbenefits? What will the impact on our services be? Do our schools, health centre, car parks, recycling systems, fire service etc really have spare capacity at the moment?   Do we have enough houses but just need to find a way to free them up? I personally think the idea of targeting provision around our aging population is key. On our road we have over 50% occupancy of 4 bedroom houses with one or two people. Our neighbour opposite is selling up after 35 + years but has to move to East Grinstead. If there were nice places for older people in the Village she may well have moved a long time back and vacated a family house...

It has been suggested that Kidbrooke Park might accommodate the aging Steiner population- perhaps managed by an anthroposophical housing association? Bearing in  mind that Michael Hall ( and Emerson) attracts a substantial amount of people to the village - it seems fair for it to take some responsibility for housing after the event - guess that's why Michael Fields was built? 

Random thoughts copied to a random group - feedback/reactions welcome...

Alan