22/03/2026
𝗛𝗢𝗥𝗦𝗛𝗔𝗠 𝗕𝗟𝗨𝗘𝗣𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗧 - 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗘𝗡𝗗 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗬: The Localism Act 2011 introduced neighbourhood planning by allowing parish councils and groups of people from the community, called neighbourhood forums, to formulate Neighbourhood Plans.
As the central part of our town was unparished our three Neighbourhood Councils - Denne, Forest and Trafalgar - and the Horsham Society led a process which culminated in bringing together a broad range of interested individuals and community groups to create the Blueprint Neighbourhood Forum.
After many years of hard work the Horsham Blueprint Business Neighbourhood Plan was approved in a public referendum and adopted by Horsham District Council in December 2022.
One of the actions in the plan was to examine the possibility of creating a parish council for the town. As a Neighbourhood Forum with an adopted plan the Localism Act allowed us to trigger a review by HDC of the governance arrangements for the town with a view to creating a parish council.
In December 2025 the Council agreed to create a new Horsham Parish Council covering Denne, Forest and Trafalgar neighbourhoods with effect from 1st April. On 7th May the first 18 parish councillors will be elected, starting a new chapter in the history of our town.
On 1st April our designation as a neighbourhood forum will be removed and our work is done.
The Horsham Blueprint Business Neighbourhood Plan will remain part of HDC's suite of planning policy documents and responsibility for keeping it under review will pass to the new Parish Council. We will be giving a printed copy to each of the new councillors as part of their induction pack.
In accordance with our constitution there will be an Extraordinary General Meeting on 23 July to agree the dissolution of the Forum.
