The History the Association:

The HTRA was started in November 2004, 2 residents in consultation with others approached Downland with the request that they support a resident's meeting of all the social housing in Hurstpierpoint. A meeting was held in the social club at court bushes, at this first meeting the turn out was quite high with 40 residents attending and a committee was elected to begin the HTRA. There were 8 members on the original committee, and the first job was to write a constitution and clarify the aims of the association. The constitution was written and there was also a declaration of aims published.

It was decided to send a newsletter to all households whenever we had information to give out, and indeed could afford to print, this was shortly superseded when Downland Housing Association gave us recognition and in doing so ensured a yearly subsistence grant of £150.00 and also offered to do our printing for us free of charge.

Our first real problems were neighbourhood nuisance problems in Blackthorns and then, as now the anti-social behaviour problem which was fairly continuous. In the first year a lot was learnt and we began to interact with Downland on repairs and refurbishment questions, and this has continued with a great deal of success for individuals over the past 4 years.

The HTRA has gradually grown and there are now 12 on the committee, and many other residents who give help and support on a regular basis.
We have done a lot, and were largely instrumental in getting our community police officer after having a visit from Nick Herbert the MP for Hurstpierpoint at our RA meeting. Nick continues to work with us. We have gradually managed to become accepted by the village and indeed slowly are integrating with it.
The chairman sits on The Parish Council community affairs committee and also the Community Partnership.

The other side of our advancement is in the social area, with the running of children's discos, a pensioners trip, a family trip to Paultons theme park and our greatest success was last year when we started Adventurecus, with the community partnership helping to create the finance, and the sports event run solely by the committee we provided just under 2000 hours of sports tuition at Hurstpierpoint College. This year we are attempting to double this.