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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:

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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: 

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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. 

ADD UPDATE, 9 July 2017: Less than two weeks before Eastleigh Borough Council (EBC) makes a key decision on a massive 6,200 housing development, it has been hit by a double whammy. Problems are piling up one after another. In one case, Network Rail wants a ransom of millions of pounds for improving a road under a deathtrap bridge. And Southern Water has now admitted it would have to find alternative supplies if the scheme goes ahead. If it can’t find them then the scheme is, literally, dead in the water.

In the case of the bridge, EBC has been warned by Network Rail that trying to squeeze a new road under a very old road bridge could cost lives. In recent years, lorries have hit the bridge no less than 18 times. Fixing it could also cost the council millions of pounds because Network Rail will only allow improvements to be made to the bridge to accommodate the huge housing development if it gets a share of the developers’ profits. It’s demanding a share of the uplift in value from agricultural to residential land. And, say experts, that could cost so many millions that it would make the whole scheme unviable. And as if that wasn’t enough, the council has already been warned by an MEP that if the planned new road damages the River Itchen’s floodplain then the UK could be taken to court and fined many millions of euros.

In an official statement that now confirms the dangers, Network Rail said: “This bridge is already prone to bridge strikes, with 18 recorded since 2008, and an increase in the volume of traffic would increase the risk of such incidents. Bridge strikes not only present a safety risk to road users and pedestrians, they also delay thousands of rail passengers and cost the taxpayer significant amounts of money. In addition, an increase in the volume of traffic may require changes to the road and bridge in order for it to be compliant with safety standards designed to protect road users and pedestrians, and generally to reduce the risk of bridge strikes should a housing development of this scale proceed.”

One solution being considered is to ban HGVs from the bridge, together with pedestrians. But that would divert even more heavy traffic onto near roads and increase congestion. And all this even if engineers found a way of squeezing the new road between protected ancient woodlands.

And now even EBC admits the scheme could have vast funding problems. A council statement confirms Network Rail “are under a best-value obligation from the Department for Transport to ensure that any rights granted (or other related work needed to enable the scheme) are appropriately valued and take into account the uplift in land value (from agricultural to residential) that such works will unlock. The value secured by Network Rail in that scenario would then be reinvested back into the railway network. This could result in a significant value being due to Network Rail which could significantly impact upon the viability of the development option.”

But apart from money problems there is now a new question: how to supply thousands of new residents with water. The Environment Agency (EA) has ordered Southern Water to drastically reduce the amount of water it takes from both the Test and the Itchen. The EA is forced to restrict how much water is taken from the rivers because of the EU Habitats Directive which has ruled that the rivers are not up to par. The decision will be finally made by a public inquiry next year. But in the meantime the water company has admitted: “We will consider all the options (including desalination, water recycling and transfers from neighbouring water companies) for the alternative new supplies we need and how long it will take to implement these schemes.”

EBC is due to make a key decision about the plan at a public meeting on 20 July (7pm at Kings Community Church, Upper Northam Road, Hedge End, Southampton, SO30 4BZ) when hundreds of protestors are due to attend. More details on this meeting can be found here. We look forward to seeing you there!

ADD UPDATE: 9 July 2017: Eastleigh Borough Council has announced the venue for its council meeting on 20 JULY, at which it will take a critical decision relating to its Local Plan options. The meeting, which will take place at 7pm, will be held at Kings Community Church, Upper Northam Road, Hedge End, Southampton, SO30 4BZ.

Join us to make local opinion heard at this crucial meeting when we believe the council, led by Keith House (Lib Dem, pictured), will push forward with its preferred GIANT housing development (enough to cover its housing need for the next 20 years) in the very north of the borough (Allbrook, Bishopstoke and Fair Oak), right on the border with Winchester’s southern villages (Upham, Owslebury, Twyford, Colden Common, Bishops Waltham, Otterbourne). THIS IS A MASSIVE DEVELOPMENT ON SOME OF HAMPSHIRE’S FINEST COUNTRYSIDE!

As TV naturalist Chris Packham says: “It is desperately important that people get behind the campaign to prevent this piece of eco-vandalism.” MORE THAN 6,000 HOUSES (equivalent to a town more than three times the size of Colden Common), several thousand new vehicles daily on our existing roads plus a major new road driven through ancient woodland and unspoilt countryside. Once gone, it will be lost forever – but we CAN do something about it.

Come to this meeting and join us in protesting against this wanton destruction of our beautiful countryside. Whilst we may not persuade the council to abandon these plans (known as options B and C) this time, a big turnout WILL make a significant difference when we demonstrate the strength of local opposition to the independent planning inspector.

PLEASE SAVE THIS DATE AND ASK OTHERS TO DO SO TOO! WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU THERE.