Neighbourhood Plan ‘Blog’

I don’t know how I spotted this but South Downs National Park gave “enthusiastic” green light build 685 homes in Lewes on Feb this year. It begs the question why Petersfield is off limits for any significant sharing of the development burden … rather than treating Alton and surrounds as a “brownfield site” to “dump” it all ?
I keep hearing that Petersfield can’t share any of the load because it is precious and in the SDNP … but I drove around it last week on a diversion and it is no more special than Alton – with almost the same population. The same mix of housing stocks, estates, etc. it feels the principles underpinning the “carefully thought through plan” need to be tested … from the overall target that has voluntarily been pumped up by 20% down …

I am certain that Petersfield would welcome new development particularly as its population ages and young people have to move away. Their plight is, in a different way, just as threatening as that facing Alton I think.

Great work on the Holybourne magazine John / team … really clear explanation. Does highlight the Petersfield anomaly somewhat … zero allocation (unlike Lewes which is also in SDNP – how are they different?). leaving Alton and surrounds to fight over 75% of the allocation. There is a degree of randomness about the parameters of this plan. Unfortunately a poorly conceived plan could have a huge impact on our lives. Worth fighting for – Holybourne resident

Great work Jerry / team.

As an aside, for the first time in a long time I travelled by car out onto the A31 to a client in rush hour this AM (normally train). It struck me how traffic into Alton backed up up the a31 towards chawton. Obv we knew the new traffic lights on montecchio would have this impact. But add in neatham and it would just be plain dangerous. They’d be queuing across the roundabout … but this roundabout is high speed. Has anyone else seen this? – Holybourne resident.

Traffic snaking around the roundabout is like that most mornings – Holybourne resident

Does anyone know if EHDC have made any comments on the back of Rishi Sunak’s comments reported a couple of weeks ago? Can’t recall the words precisely but I seem to recall it was about ‘where’ not ‘how many’ and made reference to locations with inadequate infrastructure (Holybourne, Neatham Down, Alton all fitting the bill) not being the right places for major developments.

(HVA)
The latest details from the Alton neighbourhood plan show no site allocations. This means Holybourne does not appear, but it’s certainly not the end of the road. We need to remain vigilant.
(Planning Contact)
I have no idea what has been decided or otherwise but I do know The ANP will issue a statement with all the details and an explanation in the next few days. I suggest we wait for that statement, and allow John Bound, who lives in Holybourne and who sits on that committee to explain it to us. Thankfully, he’s very good at explanations!

A note concerning the recent traffic survey in the village.
Dear HVA,
Thank you for your time this afternoon.
Further to my email to Jerry Janes on 12^th January confirming that we would undertake some further highways work, I confirm our Highways Consultants Paul Basham Associates organised the following surveys last week:

• To understand the existing traffic flows –  ATC (Automatic Traffic Counts) surveys in the vicinity of the site access and in the vicinity of the village centre (near the shop & pub).
• Traffic counts and queue length surveys at the London Road/Montecchio Way signalised junction to understand how the junction is currently operating.

As discussed on our call we are undertaking this work so that we can better understand the existing position and then we can look at some potential improvements which we would like to present in due course.
If you would like any further information on the above please let me know.
Thanks
Kind regards

Fiona

Meeting at the Alton Rugby club, with bar facility, this Friday 16th at 7pm. We would like to discuss our concerns, but also meet with other members of the Holybourne and Alton community to understand their views about all the Alton development proposals, particularly Neatham Down with 1250 houses.

The aim is for this to be an opportunity for the wider Alton community to meet and discuss how we could support each other going forward.

One really useful thing, everyone could do is to write to our MP Damien Hinds and ask him to increase the pressure on Michael Gove to lift the requirement for that part of East Hampshire that is not in the national park to absorb the building demands for that part that is. He says he has had discussions with Michael Gove, but nothing has changed and that is an area we could bring pressure to bear. The Government provides EHDC with their requirement for new houses which they wish to be built within the South and SouthEast of the country. It is based on geographical area. EHDC are then duty bound to find development areas to meet this. If one area cannot meet its share based on size, then the allocation has to be met by adjacent areas. As a major part of East Hampshire is in the South Downs National Park where restrictions to development apply, the rest of the area has to accommodate the shortfall in building plot supply.  It’s not Petersfield’s fault, but we are having to house Petersfield people who cannot get a house in Petersfield because they’re in the National Park which has restricted planning criteria and EHDC will have to take up the housing which isn’t built there.

The EHDC Local Plan display at The Maltings
“I was ready to write my views everywhere but all it was was a reproduction of the information in the plan including the reading materials and the one officer I overheard just seemed to say we’ve got to build so that’s it . The people I spoke to who weren’t from Holybourne were against the Neatham build. 1000 houses seems a lot but when you see it on the map it looked even bigger like a 1/3 of the footprint of Alton. And almost stretches as far as Worldham road/golf club. Interestingly on another point Selborne are publishing their village plan at the moment which is a) in the South Downs and b) a conservation area: so might be worth having a look at it for anything we can pinch to boost Holybourne’s argument.

Actually, although it is not definitive, the outline plan for Neatham has a ‘centre’ which mentioned a possible junior school. Agree it is a HCC decision but 1000 houses does mean a new school has to be created.

A petition opposing Neatham Down, which repeats the point that the proposed developments at Neatham Down and Holybourne are unrelated — save for the fact that both are pieces of a wider plan to disproportionately over-develop Alton, Holybourne and surrounds. Please consider adding your support.

” Concerned Resident”

I spent some time going over this revised proposal last night. I’d urge everyone to take a look. (It’s in Part 8 of the 9-part document here: Local Plan
The most salient points re Neatham Down are:

– This represents the creation of an entire new town, and is by far the biggest proposal being considered by the East Hampshire District Council. The developer had proposed 1,250 houses; the EDHC reduced that to 1,000. But we’re still talking a geographical area adjacent to Holybourne that is larger, in fact, than Holybourne, with a greater population. It will take 10 years to build, with the associated noise and disruption – which will include, at least in the early years, construction traffic passing through Holybourne and Neatham Manor Farm. Once it is built, it will contribute to light pollution and, without expansion of the road network, its several thousand resident cars can be expected to create jams on our already busy roads.
– Neatham will now not be 500 yards away from this new development, but perhaps 30 yards. Of most relevance to Neatham’s Holybourne neighbours, if you combine this development with the simultaneous development on the north side of the A31 at Lynch Hill, geographically, in terms of continuous urban sprawl, Neatham Manor Farm and Lynch Hill represent the end of Holybourne as an independent village, and its absorption into a Greater Alton. After construction, Holybourne would no longer be linked to Alton by a limited frontier on its western end but a contiguous urban connection all along its western and southern and southeastern borders. (To orientate you, if you think of Holybourne as a clock, the parts filled in would run from 9’oclock through 6 o’clock to around half past three.) I would also suggest that once Holybourne has been absorbed in this way, and on both sides of the A31, the obvious choice for any future planners looking for suitable housing sites would be to push further out beyond the old Holybourne’s western and northern boundaries, into the flat areas on both sides of the dual carriageway, until any trace of the village that once was disappears entirely.
– As the document makes clear, the EDHC is very much in favour of this proposal. It scores top marks on its comparative scoreboard. Any campaign against Neatham Manor Farm would have to be commensurately vocal and determined.

“Editorial Comment”
I do think you need to involve Binsted parish Council and find out what they are doing about this. It’s their patch. I am sorry to say that ultimately this will become a them or us situation. If you argue against development on Neatham Down, you will be putting pressure on development at other sites around the town which also of course includes Holybourne. I would think long and hard before signing any petitions. I’m sorry if this sounds terrible, but having been involved in planning for many years I can tell you this is the reality. The District Council has got to identify sites. It will not go away.

Alton Neighbourhood Plan Update – Issue 2

The Alton Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group has issued the following Press Release:

We are very grateful to the members of the public who have contributed to our work so far and hope that we can have constructive and copious feedback when we go to the next consultation period in April. This is your town and your opinions count, so please get involved in the consultations.
Alton’s Neighbourhood Development Plan: Making Good Progress
The task of the Alton Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group is to replace the current Neighbourhood Plan to cover the period out to 2040.  The Steering Group sponsored by Alton Town Council is made up of volunteers,  specialist planning consultants and Town and District Councillors.

What is a Neighbourhood Plan?
A Neighbourhood Plan is a highly influential document that is a key part of the East Hampshire District planning process, giving residents of Alton the opportunity to express their views on both residential and infrastructure development within their town.  By definition, the scope of the plan is limited to all wards in the Alton Parish.  This is critical work as Alton and the surrounding area will need to take its share of housing and employment area development, as part of East Hampshire District Council (EHDC) local plan allocation from the present out to 2040.

What is in a Neighbourhood Plan?
A good Neighbourhood Plan will attempt to include many aspects of development that affect local residents, such as locations of any large developments, the type of design and architecture used, the potential impact on public services and amenities, an assessment of the local housing need and a future vision of what we want our town to look and feel like. Our new Neighbourhood Plan will contain all these elements.

How much progress has been made so far?
The Steering Group, which includes members experienced in developing such plans as well as members of the public, have been working on this for many months. Key elements of progress so far have been:·
Initial Public Engagement (May 2023)
Highlighting possible development sites, potential town centre regeneration and general information on housing needs.·
Second Public Engagement (September 2023).
Inviting comment on more detailed proposed development scenarios for the town and surrounding area.·
Engagement Report & Conclusions (December 2023)
Creation of a detailed report capturing and analysing the views and opinions from the two public engagements, which can be viewed or downloaded here: Consultation-Summary-1.5.pdf (alton.gov.uk)

What are the Next Steps?·
Housing Site Allocation Workshop – (January 2024)
The Steering Group working with the assistance of specialist planning consultants will be undertaking a final housing site allocation workshop after the Christmas break. This process will take into consideration the evidence gathered so far including the feedback received from the two public engagements to inform the development of the draft.·
Creation of a Draft Neighbourhood Plan – (January 2024)
This draft will be presented to Alton Town Council, and as well as planning policies, it will include guidance in specific development areas for which they have responsibility or influence.  If content, the Council will authorise the Plan to go forward for formal public consultation.•
Formal Public Consultation – (April 2024)The publication of the draft  Alton Neighbourhood Plan marks the start of a six-week consultation period, known as ‘Regulation 14’ that is required by planning law.     This process will be widely publicised and there will be a drop-in event held in the Town Centre, when members of the public can view and comment on the proposals.   East Hampshire District Council (EHDC) will be consulting for 6 weeks on their ‘Local Plan’ for the District in early 2024 and so ‘Regulation 14’ consultation will not begin until April 2024 to avoid confusion.All comments from the public will then be analysed and considered with any required changes to the draft plan being made before it is submitted to the Town Council for final approval and then submitted to EHDC.
Further information can be found at Alton Town Council website: https://www.alton.gov.uk/neighbourhood-plan/

16/12/2023

The farm estate are cutting down all the hedgerows along the byway between the Roman road and Brockham Hill Lane.
We spoke to the bloke doing the work. He was very knowledgeable and was very keen to explain. It is being done to sustain the hedgerow, not destroy it. It’s been neglected over the years and is being killed by Ivy. The stuff they’ve cut down will go for biomass fuel. He went on to explain that in places the hedge is lacking in certain types of plant and that’s going to be dealt with too.
He went on to explain that this “farm” is a consolidation of a number of old farms and they’re trying to modernise it. Hence the new £3M grain store and improved farm tracks. The farm manager regularly updates the Froyle Parrish Council. Hard to know who to believe with respect to the strategic objectives of this group.
The HVA are arranging for farm manager to attend HVA meeting every six months or so to update us on just this kind of thing!

07/12/2023

Recently many large 8 wheeler lorries were seen driving up and down Howards Lanes delivering road material (somewhere). Councillor Graham Hill made enquires of the EHDC planning to shed some light on this. The text of the email exchange is below:-Cllr GH
There have been a number of lorries delivering road planing material (the material scraped off a road before re-surfacing) to a farm in Holybourne. This material is essentially old tarmac and is being used to surface farm tracks on a farm.EHDC
Under part 6 of the permitted development order 2015 its normally permitted without need of any prior or full application to repair and refurbish existing farm tracks. In fact its permitted to create new ones for the purposes of agriculture and not classed as development if repairing.
Sean Baldock
Planning Enforcement ManagerThe farm in question is part of the Redbrown Group who purchased the Froyle Estate

07/09/2023Just to bring you all up to speed with what I, Jerry, and the group have been up to. You will be aware now that the results of the village survey have been collated, analysed and published on the village website. Many thanks to Jackie Nelson for her untiring efforts on this and to Andy Muir for putting them onto our website, Holybourne.com. A small group took the results and conducted research in specific areas to co-author the Strategic Response to Planning Applications that is also published on the web site. It’s a heavy read but please do look through it. I’ve had a series of meetings with people I hope might be able to help us including with the Planning consultant we have engaged to advise us. Helen Walters and I walked him all around the village and surrounding countryside on a boiling hot afternoon but he got a genuine impression of what it is that we are trying to protect. I’m meeting the Chair of the Alton Society this Thursday afternoon and Vanessa Gist is arranging for us to meet a representative from the CPRE. I just think the more friends we can gather, the better. As you know the consultation on the Alton Neighbourhood plan takes place tomorrow and I won’t bore you by pleading with you to attend. If there is anyone who might need a lift down, please do offer to help if you can. A key distraction from building on green-fields sites is the implementation of something called Neighbourhood Development Orders which would allow local communities to demand the redevelopment of unused or inefficiently used sites to provide opportunities for the development of affordable housing. The redevelopment of the old Post Office site in Alton and perhaps building houses on underused car parks would mean that they don’t have to build in Holybourne. Please clamour for this approach. Finally, could you give some serious thought to where in Holybourne we might welcome development? Currently we have a housing need in the village of two dozen affordable homes. Where might we put them? I would counsel that a total opposition to any development at all is unlikely to win us any friends while at the same time, disadvantage those villagers who need affordable homes. I’d be very grateful to hear your thoughts either by WhatsApp or by emailing Chair@holybourne.com.

8 /9/2023There is a spring behind  the Forge, and the fields behind the playground have often taken the flood water. Building there would make the existing houses at greater risk of flooding. Has anyone got photos of the last time we had serious problems?Flooding risk has got to be very important part of the village resistance to this proposal. It’s not just the properties on the playground side of London Road at risk it is all those opposite. As Juliet says there are numerous underground springs which drain water off the downs so any new properties built may be at risk of flooding. Remember the issue at Farringdon when EHDC had to rebuild properties built in land that flooded similar to this land in the early 2000s.Flooding plus far too many cars going along roads originally meant for carriages and carts. Brockham Hill is already crumbling and the safe passing places (no deep potholes) are getting fewer. Do we know where the entry and exit points are proposed?

A team representing all the pressure groups across Alton and Holybourne met with a Meridian news crew on Monday 11th to voice our concerns about what is being proposed in the local plan.

From Meridian local news Tuesday 12th.- see link below

Those of you who have looked at the draft Local Plan will have spotted that rather unusually EHDC has not specified the sites for development in Alton (inc Holybourne). Instead, the Plan simply allocates 1700 houses to Alton to include a development of 1000 houses at Neatham. The sites for the remaining 700 houses are to be allocated using the Alton Neighbourhood Plan.

12/10/2023Following on from the discussions at the HVA AGM about the proposal to re-route the St Swithun’s Way footpath around the car park at Treloars, here is a copy of the PUBLIC NOTICE which gives the details. Comments/objections are invited up to 27th Oct.Contact the County Council at row.notices@hants.gov.uk

One of the slides at the presentation will be about Neighbourhood Development Orders (see below). This is really important as it would allow Alton to regenerate the existing urbanised parts of the town and potentially reduce the pressure on greenfield sites.

Alton Neighbourhood Plan

Further details will be found on the Alton Town Council Website

– { www.alton.gov.uk/neighbourhood-plan } as they become available

Having chatted to several Holybourne residents, it seems that people are unsure about how this money is being spent. Who are the consultants? Are they local to and on the side of Holybourne?  So I, and others too I suspect, would appreciate a clearer picture of how £10000 would be spent and what it could achieve.In response to the query above, Jerry has put a document together which he hopes answers the questions posed.  Click Here to Read.

For what it’s worth, my own feeling is that the village could sustain very little more development that empties onto London Road.If this was proposed by the developers I do not believe they would ever get consent for large-scale development. If you want to know what Holybourne was like in the Pre bypass days try talking to David Andrews or some of the elder statesmen and women in the village who lived there at the time. I am told it was quicker to go up Brockham Hill and down the old Odiham Road into Alton than try and queue through the village.There is a significant amount of land being considered in Holybourne. You can see it on the map – the purple areas are those available for development and being considered.JJ Chair HVA