Don’t miss your chance to have your say on more detailed proposals to create a Town Council for the Horsham town centre area in a second consultation.
In May 2025 Horsham District Council issued an initial consultation inviting local residents, businesses and community groups to share their views on whether Horsham Town Centre area should have a Town Council. A resounding 75.5% of the responses received indicated overall support for the creation of a Town Council.
In this second consultation the Council is asking for views on what the Town Council should be called, how the Town Council could work in terms of the number of town councillors and wards it would have and how these wards should be divided.
It is an important time to share your views.
The Government has recently proposed that local government is reorganised, which would mean that Horsham District Council (HDC) and West Sussex County Council (WSCC) would cease to exist. Instead, a new Unitary Authority council would be formed which would be responsible for all the main services currently managed by HDC and WSCC.
Moving to a large Unitary Authority means the future of facilities such as the current HDC managed bandstands, the War Memorial, Hills Farm Cemetery, the Museum and Art Gallery, its community halls, Horsham Park, and its allotments would be decided by a large organisation possibly not based in the Horsham area.
Horsham town is unique in Horsham District, in that many services and community facilities that are otherwise managed by parish councils, are managed by HDC. A newly formed Horsham Town Council could however take over running these services.
Cllr James Brookes, Chair of the Governance Committee commented: “Thank you to the many of you who completed our first consultation into the creation of a Town Council for Horsham.
Your views certainly do count and have been key to helping us shape our proposals so far. Please do now take the time to complete our second consultation to help us shape Horsham’s first town council.
“A new town council is one way to ensure that Horsham town services and community facilities are managed from Horsham.Comprised of locally elected people, the town council could represent local views to any newly-formed larger Unitary Authority so that decisions could be taken to suit local needs.”
For more information about the development of a town council and a full list of facilities and services a town council would be responsible visit Horsham District Council's website.
The second public consultation starts on 14 August 2025 and ends on 29 September 2025 and it only takes a few minutes to complete the survey.