The threat of a huge housing development being built on 150 acres of unspoilt countryside has been lifted.

Proposed changes by West Sussex planners mean Horsham District Council can abandon plans for a controversial development between Christ's Hospital and Broadbridge Heath.

The council had been considering allowing more than 4,000 homes to be built between the two areas with a park in the middle.

Planning director Tony Stevens said: "The proposal on the WestSussex draft structure plan for the west and south west of the town is for 1,000 homes which means we will not have to extend up to Christ's Hospital."

He said the council had not decided where any of the new developments would be sited and this would not be determined until 2003/4.

The news was greeted with delight by the Weald Vale Association (WVA), which has been opposing development at Christ's Hospital.

Chairman Ghyll Morfey said: "The draft plan is fantastic news for Horsham district.

"It is a well thought-through document setting out a clear strategic vision. It contains almost everything the WVA has been lobbying for."

Spokesman Derek Poots said the rejection of the Christ's Hospital area for development, which was central to the west Horsham option, also took the pressure off Broadbridge Heath, Slinfold, Barns Green and Southwater.

The 9,400 houses will be made up of 1,300 on sites already committed for development, 4,000 on previously-used brownfield sites, 500 in small developments in existing villages and 3,500 on greenfield sites.

Those to be built on greenfield sites would be in two main areas, 2,500 west of Crawley and 1,000 west and south west of Horsham. Work will not start on these developments before 2008.

This compares with the previous West Sussex County Council strategy document which proposed 12,000 houses in the Horsham district between 1996 and 2011, including 5,300 on greenfield sites.

The new figures mean the average housebuilding rates will be reduced from 800 a year in the original proposals to less than 600, with a much lower figure between 2001-6.