Permission for a 2.45m memorial to the poet was granted on 1 July. The fundraisers have £28,000 of the £85,000 they need, and one body objected to the paving.
Horsham District Council granted planning permission on 1 July for a permanent memorial to Percy Bysshe Shelley in Horsham Park. The Shelley Memorial Project now has to pay for it, and it is £57,000 short.
The campaign has raised £28,000 from 546 supporters, which it puts at 32% of a target of £85,000. It updates the total monthly (Shelley Memorial Project).
What was approved
The application, reference DC/26/0227, was submitted on 28 January and validated on 4 March. It was decided under delegated powers, not by councillors at committee, and permitted on 1 July (Horsham District Council planning register).
The officer’s report gives the dimensions the fundraising pages do not:
- overall height 2.45 metres, made up of a 1.80 metre base with 0.65 metres on top
- the base measures 2.25 metres
- it sits on a grass triangle in the south-east corner of the park, near North Street car park, where several footpaths converge
- an area of resin bonded aggregate hardstanding goes around it, so visitors can stand on a hard surface to look at it
The approved site is not the one first announced. When Vincent Gray’s design was chosen in May 2024, the project said the council had agreed to install it “at the centre of Horsham Park near the pond”. The application that was granted puts it on the eastern edge instead.
The design is by Chichester sculptor Vincent Gray: a bronze quill pen on a pillar inscribed with quotations from Shelley’s work. It won a public vote in 2024 in which more than 1,700 people took part, choosing between four shortlisted concepts (Shelley Memorial Project press page).
The one objection was about the paving, not the poet
Fifteen letters of support arrived from 13 addresses. The council’s report records no letters of objection from members of the public.
The objection came from Denne Neighbourhood Council, and it is worth reading carefully, because it supports the memorial and the location. What it objected to was the “piazza”: it called the hard surfaced area too large, and asked for the statue to be moved nearer the point where the paths meet, so the grass triangle could be removed to make maintenance easier and the paving could be reduced.
Officers acknowledged the concern and disagreed. The report concludes that the location and the surrounding hardstanding are appropriate for the park, that the resin bonded aggregate matches what is already used in the park and its sensory garden, and that modest structures are scattered around the park already, so this one would not be unusual in context.
Two heritage consultees raised nothing. Historic England returned “no comment”. The council’s own conservation officer had no objection, noting that Horsham Park forms the setting of the Grade II* listed Park House, that the two nearest listed buildings are about 48 and 71 metres away and screened by planting, and that a statue “would not be unexpected within the setting of a country house”.
The permission carries three conditions: the standard three-year time limit, a requirement that materials match the approved plans, and a pre-commencement condition requiring a Habitat Management and Monitoring Plan. The applicant’s biodiversity metric shows a 17.03% net gain on site, above the statutory 10% minimum. A Biodiversity Gain Plan has to be submitted and approved before any work starts.
Where the money comes from
The project is a fundraising campaign, not a council capital scheme. Alongside donations it runs an international poetry competition, sells sponsorship of individual poems to be inscribed on the memorial, and takes a share of ticket sales through the Horsham District Community Lottery.
Shelley was born at Field Place in Warnham in 1792 and baptised at St Margaret’s Church there. His family are commemorated at St Mary’s Church in Horsham. The council’s conservation officer’s note in the case file sets out why the town claims him: one of the major English Romantic poets, radical in his politics, married to Mary Shelley.
What it means for you
Nothing will appear in the park this year. Permission lasts three years from 1 July 2026, and no work can begin until the biodiversity paperwork is approved and the money is raised. On the current total, that is £57,000 away.
If you want to see where it goes, walk into the south-east side of Horsham Park, near the North Street car park, and look at the grass triangle where the footpaths converge. That is the spot.
If you want to follow the application itself, search DC/26/0227 on the council’s planning register. Our Horsham planning applications page explains how the register works and what the statuses mean.
Sources
- Horsham District Council delegated assessment sheet and decision for application DC/26/0227, Horsham Park, “Erection of a memorial statue”, signed by case officer Bethan Tinning and authorising officer Tamara Dale on 1 July 2026, obtained through the council’s planning document search
- Horsham District Council planning register, application DC/26/0227 summary and dates
- Shelley Memorial Project fundraising totals, updated monthly, and its press page for the 2024 design selection
Checked against the sources above on 30 August 2026. The fundraising figures are the project’s own and it says it updates them monthly, so the live total may be higher than £28,000. The council’s planning portal does not serve documents directly; the officer’s report was obtained through the council’s separate document search.
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