Horsham Town Council backed a single council. North Horsham voted to stay separate. The consultation closed on 7 September; the decision is due on 28 September.

The consultation that could abolish one of Horsham’s two councils closed at 11.59pm on Monday 7 September. The two councils in question have asked for opposite things.

Horsham Town Council resolved on 26 August to support Option 1, a single council for the whole urban area. North Horsham Parish Council resolved on 30 July to support Option 2, which keeps both councils and moves the boundary instead. Both have now published their responses in full.

Horsham District Council’s Governance Committee is due to consider the responses and produce its final recommendations on Monday 28 September 2026 (review page and timetable).

We set out what each option would mean, ward by ward, when the consultation opened, and reported North Horsham’s vote at the time it was taken.

What Horsham Town Council asked for

The town council’s four-page response is now published. It supports Option 1 on three grounds (Horsham Town Council response, PDF):

  • Community identity. The council says Horsham “functions as a single urban community” and that the current boundary “is largely invisible to residents”.
  • Effective local government. It argues a single authority would deliver services consistently and be better placed to represent the town “in light of potential future local government reorganisation”.
  • Electoral representation. It says larger multi-member wards give residents “a wider choice of elected representatives to approach”.

The response carries a second request, and it matters whichever option wins. If the district proceeds with Option 2, the town council asks that the transfer of Kingslea ward to North Horsham be removed. It says Kingslea “forms an integral part of the Horsham urban area” and that there is “insufficient community identity or governance justification” for the move.

Kingslea is a single-councillor ward of 927 electors. Under Option 2 it would leave the town council and join an enlarged Roffey South ward in North Horsham, taking the town council from 18 councillors to 17.

What North Horsham Parish Council asked for

North Horsham published its case on 28 August (North Horsham Parish Council statement). It gives four reasons for backing Option 2:

  • to maintain local accountability
  • to keep national party politics out of local decision-making
  • to protect residents from what it calls unnecessary increases in local taxes
  • to ensure North Horsham taxpayers are not obliged to subsidise services elsewhere, including the town centre

The statement also records how the parish council came to hear of the proposal. It says it “did not request this governance review and only became aware of the proposal when the Agenda was published for Horsham District Council’s Governance Committee Meeting on 22nd July 2026”.

The council tax claim, checked

North Horsham’s central argument is financial. It says a combined “mega” town council “risks increases to Council Tax for North Horsham residents”, and points out that its own precept is one of the lowest in the district.

We checked those figures against the district council’s own public notice of the 2026/27 charges. They are accurate.

Bar chart of the parish or town element of a Band D council tax bill in Horsham district for 2026/27. Colgate £18.24, North Horsham £45.74, Horsham town £55.85, district average across 32 parishes £90.93, Steyning £179.17.
Graphic by Horsham Daily, derived from Horsham District Council's council tax bands and charges notice for 2026/27.
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Every Band D figure in that notice sits on the same base of £2,352.37, which covers West Sussex County Council, the Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner and Horsham District Council. Subtracting it leaves the local element. On that basis:

  • North Horsham Parish Council’s element is £45.74, the fourth lowest of the district’s 32 parish councils, behind Colgate, Wiston and Coldwaltham.
  • The average across those 32 is £90.93, and the highest is Steyning at £179.17. Both match the parish council’s statement to the penny.

But the comparison that decides a resident’s bill is the total, and there the picture is closer than the argument implies. Horsham town is not a low-precept area. It pays a special charge of £40.59 plus the new town council precept of £15.26, which is £55.85 in local charges, more than North Horsham pays.

The result is that a Band D home in North Horsham pays £2,398.11 this year, against £2,408.22 in Horsham town (council tax bands and charges 2026/27 notice, PDF). North Horsham is £10.11 a year cheaper, not £45 cheaper, and the gap is about four tenths of one per cent of the bill.

What a merged council would charge is a separate question, and nobody has answered it. The district council’s own review pages say the exercise “does not include a detailed financial appraisal of future parish council budgets”, that “it is not possible to quantify any savings or costs at this stage”, and that precept levels “would be a matter for the relevant parish council(s) and are beyond the scope of the Community Governance Review”.

Our guide to Horsham council tax bands has the full parish-by-parish table and the rest of the bill.

The third council in this, which has said nothing

Rusper Parish Council loses land under both options. The whole of the Mowbray development is proposed to sit in one parish, so the part of it currently inside Rusper, including the area around Bohunt School, would move out. The parish boundary would shift from Rusper Road to Northlands Road, formerly Old Holbrook Lane.

The draft recommendations are blunt about why Rusper’s case carries less weight than its neighbours’: “Rusper had no online responses as the primary parish, and the evidence for Rusper is therefore much weaker” (draft recommendations, page 29, PDF).

Rusper’s own website carried the district council’s notice inviting residents to take part, but no published position on either option when we checked on 8 September (Rusper Parish Council news).

What happens next, and when

The district council’s published timetable sets out the remaining steps:

  • 28 September 2026: the Governance Committee considers the consultation responses and produces its final recommendations. The meeting is at 5.30pm, is open to the public and is livestreamed. No agenda had been published for it as of 8 September (Governance Committee meetings).
  • September or October 2026: Full Council meets to approve the reorganisation order, if one is required.
  • 1 April 2027: the effective date of any change to parish boundaries and electoral arrangements, unless the order sets a different one.
  • 1 May 2027: elections held on whatever boundaries are agreed.

One caution on the date. The timetable table gives 28 September for the final recommendations, but the frequently asked questions further down the same page say it is “anticipated that the Governance Committee will approve a final recommendation in October 2026”, with the order made in October or November. The two do not agree, so the 28 September meeting may not be the end of it.

What it means for you

If you live in North Horsham parish, the council that maintains Roffey Millennium Hall, Holbrook Tythe Barn, North Heath Hall, the allotments and the play areas may cease to exist. Its assets and its £45.74 precept would pass to a new, larger council whose budget has not been set.

If you live in the town council area, your council would roughly double in size and take in Mowbray, and your ward may be redrawn. Kingslea residents face the sharpest change: under Option 2 they would be represented by a different council altogether.

Nobody has to do anything now. The consultation is closed and late responses cannot be counted. If you want to follow the decision, the 28 September meeting is public: papers appear on the council’s committee pages usually five working days beforehand, and meetings are streamed on the council’s YouTube channel.

Nothing changes before 1 April 2027 at the earliest, and the councillors you have now stay in place until the elections on 1 May 2027.

Sources