Blog

Daily Echo, 22 July 2017: CAMPAIGNERS think that a scheme to build 5,200 homes near ancient woodland in Hampshire will be thrown out. As previously reported, Eastleigh Borough Council has indicated the area to the north of Bishopstoke and Fair Oak (options B and C) as the preferred location for the huge new development. However, during a council meeting held on Thursday night, councillors stressed that more evidence is needed before taking a decision. John Lauwerys of ADD said: “We believe that the evidence, when it is all complete, will prove… that options B and C are not the best options. Even if the council choose B and C we’ll keep fighting because we believe that the plan will be found unsound by the planning inspector.”

Daily Echo, 20 July 2017: HUNDREDS of residents are expected to pack a meeting over plans to build more than 5,000 homes near ancient woodland in Hampshire. Tonight Eastleigh Borough Council will indicate the area to the north of Bishopstoke and Fair Oak as the preferred location for a new development which could see 5,200 new homes and a new access road north of Allbrook, Bishopstoke and Fair Oak. Mark Baylis, 64, member of ADD, said: “Any development should preserve the character of the area, respecting the fact that it includes much of the borough’s most important and sensitive wildlife sites. [This] plan would create a large urban sprawl in the most environmentally sensitive parts of the borough and away from existing public transport and motorway links.”

ADD UPDATE, 20 July 2017: Ahead of Eastleigh Borough Council’s critical meeting TONIGHT (Thursday 20 July) to decide on its Local Plan options (at which we hope to see as many of you as possible – details here), ADD has this afternoon sent the following email to all Eastleigh Borough Councillors individually:

STARTS

Dear Councillor,

Eastleigh Local Plan Review: Emerging Approach

This evening, Eastleigh Borough Council will be asked to identify its preferred option for the location of the Strategic Growth Option. Many residents, affected parish councils and organisations such as the Campaign to Protect Rural England and The Woodland Trust, are concerned that that the options for meeting the demand for new housing in Eastleigh Borough are being driven by developers, and that you, the councillors, are being asked to make a decision against a wholly inadequate evidence base. With this in mind, Action against Destructive Development (ADD) has commissioned a report from planning consultants West Waddy and from our appointed barrister, Hereward Phillpot QC. I apologise for the late circulation of these reports – you will appreciate that there has been very little time in which to assess the content of the Review and such appendices as accompany it – but I would respectfully ask that you consider them before you vote this evening on the Local Plan Review. If you have time to read no more than two paragraphs, I would particularly draw your attention to paragraphs 7(b) and 8 of Hereward Phillpot’s report.

Yours sincerely,

Deborah Mitchell

Deborah Mitchell
Coordinator
Action against Destructive Development

ENDS

IF YOU DON’T WANT 5,000+ NEW HOUSES IN BISHOPSTOKE AND FAIR OAK, COME TO THE COUNCIL MEETING TONIGHT (THURSDAY, 20 JULY): 7pm at Kings Community Church, Upper Northam Road, Hedge End, SO30 4BZ.

To watch a 13 year-old’s video on what’s being planned, click here.

ADD REMINDER, 18 July 2017: An important reminder to everyone living in Eastleigh or the Winchester Southern Parishes that Eastleigh Borough Council will be making a key decision regarding its emerging Local Plan at a public meeting this Thursday, 20 July. In particular, the council has said in its papers for the meeting that it wishes to pursue plans for a MONSTER HOUSING SPRAWL (5,000+ new houses and a major new road) north of Bishopstoke and Fair Oak and south of Colden Common, Owslebury and Upham.

The meeting will be held at 7pm at the Kings Community Church, Upper Northam Road, Hedge End, Southampton, SO30 4BZ. Please come and protest against this wanton destruction of our beautiful countryside.

At the council’s meeting on this subject on 15 December last year, Keith House, leader of Eastleigh Borough Council, tweeted the above picture and comment. What he failed to mention was that virtually every single one of the 300+ people who attended STRONGLY OPPOSED the plans his council still wishes to pursue.

As ADD said in this statement yesterday, the council is “totally isolated” on this issue. The plan is opposed across the political spectrum, by all three local MPs, by conservation bodies such as the Campaign to Protect Rural England and the Woodland Trust, by angling, Church and medical organisations, by planning experts and local parish councils. The TV naturalist Chris Packham has described it as “Eco-vandalism”.

Even if the council continues to ignore the vast and growing opposition to its plans (known as options B and C) and fails to abandon them this time, a big turnout of local people and organisations WILL make a significant difference when we demonstrate the strength of local opposition to the independent planning inspector.

TRAFFIC, PARKING AND LIFTS

TRAFFIC: PLEASE NOTE THAT HAMPSHIRE PLAY SUSSEX IN A 20/20 CRICKET MATCH AT THE AGEAS BOWL ON THURSDAY EVENING SO PLEASE ALLOW PLENTY OF TIME FOR YOUR JOURNEY. 

PARKING: THERE ARE ONLY AROUND 170 PARKING SPACES ON SITE, SO PLEASE ARRANGE LIFT SHARES IF POSSIBLE. 

LIFTS: IF YOU WOULD LIKE A LIFT, PLEASE CONTACT US BY EMAILING [email protected]

SEE YOU THERE! THANK YOU.

Hampshire Chronicle, 17 July 2017: BATTLE lines are being drawn over plans to build more than 5,000 homes and community facilities near ancient woodland. During a council meeting being held this Thursday, 20 July, Eastleigh Borough Council will be indicating the area to the north and east of Bishopstoke and Fair Oak as the preferred location for a new development which could see 5,200 new homes, shops, schools, open spaces and a new access road north of Allbrook, Bishopstoke and Fair Oak. The scheme will have a major impact on villages such Colden Common, Twyford, Upham and Bishop’s Waltham. The meeting is open to the public and will be held at 7pm at Kings Community Church, Upper Northam Road, Hedge End, SO30 4BZ. A large turnout is expected.

ADD UPDATE, 17 July 2017: Ahead of Eastleigh Borough Council’s critical meeting this Thursday, 20 July, to decide on its Local Plan options (at which we hope to see as many of you as possible – details here), ADD has today put out the following press release: 

STARTS

Eastleigh local plan unachievable – ADD action group urges inclusive discussion of evidence to avoid plan failure

The emerging Eastleigh Local Plan is destined to fail when it comes before the planning inspector unless there are substantial modifications, Action against Destructive Development warns today.

The latest version of the plan, published last week and due to be discussed at full council on Thursday, contains inconsistencies, misleading statements and vast gaps in evidence.

The plan would involve the building of more than 5,000 homes on the outskirts of Fair Oak and Bishopstoke – so-called Options B and C – and a new £40 million road linking the development to the M3. The council’s report admits that the proposed options contain as many as eleven weaknesses, yet makes no attempt to address them. And there is no word on how the council, already heavily in debt, expects to fund the road.

Whilst accepting that new housing is needed, ADD argues that the council has chosen the worst possible place in the borough to build it. It also believes the proposed new road would add to congestion rather than alleviate it. The plan is opposed across the political spectrum, by all three local MPs, by conservation bodies such as the Campaign to Protect Rural England and the Woodland Trust, by angling, Church and medical organisations, by planning experts and local parish councils. The TV naturalist Chris Packham has described it as “Eco-vandalism”.

“The leadership of Eastleigh Borough Council is totally isolated on this issue,” said Deborah Mitchell of ADD. “This is a classic case of starting with a policy and then trying to find the evidence to justify it. Well, the evidence just isn’t there. The environmental damage to sensitive locations, especially nationally important sites such as the ancient woodland and River Itchen, would be little short of catastrophic. The borough would also lose its finest open countryside, whilst the proposed new road would add to congestion, instead of alleviating it.”

ADD believes the consultation exercise so far has been a sham, but that there is still time for the council to consult with interested parties and get a result that would benefit the whole of Eastleigh.

“The current version of the plan is destined to fail – and that will leave planning policy in a complete mess. The Local Plan should provide a great opportunity to add to the borough’s vibrancy, but all we have at the moment is a proposal to create vast urban sprawl and wreak damage on the environment,” said Ms Mitchell.

ENDS

IF YOU DON’T WANT 5,000+ NEW HOUSES IN BISHOPSTOKE AND FAIR OAK, COME TO THE COUNCIL MEETING THIS THURSDAY, 20 JULY: 7pm at Kings Community Church, Upper Northam Road, Hedge End, SO30 4BZ. 

To watch a 13 year-old’s video on what’s being planned, click here.

ADD UPDATE, 12 July 2017: Ahead of Eastleigh Borough Council’s critical meeting on 20 July to decide on its Local Plan options (at which we hope to see as many of you as possible – details here), we have obtained a clip of BBC South’s news coverage on 7 July of the Environment Agency’s plan to reduce abstraction from the River Test and Southern Water’s recognition that the region is “water-stressed”. This clearly has important implications for Eastleigh’s plan for thousands of new houses in the borough, as John Lauwerys of ADD states.

TO VIEW, CLICK HERE. 

IF YOU DON’T WANT 6,000+ NEW HOUSES IN BISHOPSTOKE AND FAIR OAK, COME TO THE COUNCIL MEETING ON 20 JULY: 7pm at Kings Community Church, Upper Northam Road, Hedge End, SO30 4BZ. 

ADD UPDATE, 11 July 2017: Ahead of Eastleigh Borough Council’s critical meeting on 20 July to decide on its Local Plan options, local children have started adding their voice to the campaign against the council’s preferred option of a monster housing sprawl north of Bishopstoke and Fair Oak. A 13 year-old local girl has made THIS MUST-SEE VIDEO, which brilliantly reinforces the idiom that a picture is worth a thousand words! As our children will be the ones most affected by the council’s Local Plan, which is set to run to 2036, the council would be wise to take into account their attitudes before making its final decision. Let’s hope Cllr Keith House, the leader of the council, is doing so. Please share this video as widely as you can. It has also been posted on a new Instagram account, Fields of our Dreams, set up by children to raise awareness of the council’s terrible proposals.

For more videos on this story, please click here.