One 25-seat council for Horsham and North Horsham from April 2027, though 60.5% of North Horsham respondents said no. Councillors vote on Monday.

Horsham Town Council and North Horsham Parish Council should both be abolished on 1 April 2027 and replaced by a single council for the whole town. That is the final recommendation going to Horsham District Council’s Governance Committee at 5.30pm on Monday 28 September.

It is the option North Horsham’s own respondents rejected. In the second-stage survey, 691 of them (60.5%) backed keeping two councils, against 392 (34.3%) who backed a merger (consultation analysis, Appendix 2, PDF).

The district council’s report accepts that split. It concludes the wider evidence outweighs it.

The new body would be called “The Parish Council of Horsham”. The final recommendations say (Appendix 1, final recommendations, PDF):

  • both existing councils are abolished with effect from 1 April 2027
  • a new parish covers the whole of their two areas, plus the part of the Mowbray development that is in Rusper parish today
  • all assets and liabilities of the two old councils pass to the new one
  • it has 25 councillors, elected in six multi-member wards
  • the first election is on 6 May 2027, for a four-year term

The six proposed wards, from the same document:

Ward Councillors Polling districts it covers
Denne 4 Denne, Blackbridge, Highwood, Collyers, Horsham Park
Forest 5 Forest, Chesworth, Millais, Oakhill, New Street, Pollards, Station Road
Holbrook 5 North Heath Copse, Holbrook West, Millpond, Motte and Bailey, Holbrook East
Mowbray 3 North Horsham Rural
Roffey 5 Roffey North, Littlehaven, Comptons, Foundry, Roffey South
Trafalgar 3 Trafalgar, Greenway

Mowbray gets three seats for 521 electors today. The report says that allocation is based on a forecast electorate of 5,407 within five years, as the planned 2,700 homes fill up.

Why the council overrode North Horsham

The report weighs both areas’ answers together. Across the two, the single council drew 918 responses and the two-council option 809.

Bar chart of online survey responses. Horsham town: 526 for one council, 118 for keeping two. North Horsham: 392 for one council, 691 for keeping two.
Chart by Horsham Daily, from Horsham District Council's consultation analysis.
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In the town council area, 526 of 697 respondents (75.5%) backed a merger. Only 118 (16.9%) wanted two councils. North Horsham produced more responses, 1,143, and most of them went the other way.

The district council’s reasoning is that Horsham “functions as a single urban community”. It says residents on both sides share the same schools, shops, leisure centres and transport, and that the boundary between the two parishes is “largely invisible in everyday life”.

On North Horsham’s objections, the report is short. “Concerns raised by NHPC regarding representation ratios and staffing are acknowledged, but these do not outweigh the broader benefits of unified governance,” it says. It dismisses the alternative because it “does not align with the wider evidence of community identity”.

North Horsham Parish Council’s own submission argued that the parish has a distinct identity with significant rural areas. It said a merger would reduce local accountability and raise costs for its residents, and that the survey sample was too small to justify the change. Rusper Parish Council opposed moving any of Mowbray now, saying it was premature while the development is unfinished.

We checked the council tax argument in detail when the consultation closed: a Band D home in North Horsham pays £10.11 a year less than one in the town this year, not £45 less (our earlier report). What the new council would charge is still unknown. The report says the precept limits in the orders are estimates and “may not reflect the precise 2027/28 budget requirements”, and that the new council, once elected, sets its own budget.

Two community centres change hands too

The report proposes that Horsham District Council transfers two buildings to the new parish council (report to Governance Committee, PDF):

  • Park Barn Community Centre
  • the Needles Neighbourhood Centre, including Blackbridge Community Centre, the nursery and Horsham Family Hub

Both are paid for through the town’s special charge today. The report says the transfer builds on “the strong track record that North Horsham Parish Council has in successfully managing and operating community facilities”.

The other changes across the district

The same report recommends changes to seven groups of parishes. Outside the town, the main ones are:

  • Kilnwood Vale gets its own 12-seat Neighbourhood Council, taken out of Colgate and Rusper parishes. Colgate would be renamed Colgate and Faygate, and would pass £12,000 of its reserves to the new council.
  • Small Dole moves wholly into Upper Beeding parish, which would be renamed Upper Beeding and Small Dole (draft No. 3 order, PDF).
  • Southwater parish is extended south to take in new development in Shipley parish, and split into three wards.
  • Broadbridge Heath takes in the whole of the Lower Broadbridge Farm development from Slinfold.
  • Bramber takes the whole of Bramber Brooks from Steyning.

Every other parish in the district stays as it is.

What happens next

  • Monday 28 September, 5.30pm: the Governance Committee is asked to approve the final recommendations and recommend that Full Council makes the orders. The meeting is public (agenda and papers).
  • October 2026: the orders are drafted to be sealed that month, once Full Council agrees.
  • By 1 February 2027: the revised boundaries go into the electoral register. The report says the usual 1 December register will be held back to allow this.
  • 1 April 2027: the new parishes and boundaries take effect.
  • 6 May 2027: the first elections to the new councils.

The review’s total budget was £125,000, the report says. Kilnwood Vale’s set-up before its first election is estimated at a further £6,000, met by the district council.

What it means for you

Nothing changes yet. Your current town or parish councillors stay in place until May 2027.

If you live in North Horsham parish, the council that runs your halls, allotments and play areas would be replaced by a town-wide council from April. Its first budget, and so your precept for 2027/28, is not yet known.

If you want to be heard before the decision, you can attend Monday’s meeting. The consultation itself is closed, and the committee decides on the responses already received.

One wider point. Horsham District Council itself is due to be replaced by a new unitary council under West Sussex reorganisation. The report gives that as one reason for the merger: a single Horsham parish, it argues, would give the town a stronger voice under the new arrangements.

Sources