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ADD UPDATE, 16 September 2016: A lorry crashed and became stuck under a railway bridge in Romsey, Hampshire, on 14 September, paralysing a town’s road network for several hours, reported the Daily Echo yesterday.  Police closed the road in both directions while recovery teams launched a mission to free the stranded truck.

Locals say it is almost the 20th time in just ten years a lorry has got stuck under the bridge crippling roads around local homes, and say ‘lives are being put at risk’.

This bridge has 14’3” of headroom, whereas the Allbrook bridge which is at the west end of Eastleigh Borough Council (EBC)’s new link road for options B and C, has only 12’1” of headroom.  Lorries have on a number of occasions also got stuck under the Allbrook bridge, causing chaos, and with no plans to heighten the bridge, which also floods, how would it cope with the 30,000 more daily car journeys and delivery lorries the 6,000+ houses EBC are building in the area would generate?

David Ashe, 9 September 2016: As you will see in this map of options B and C, this area would comprise 195 hectares (482 acres) of housing development, mostly located between Crowd Hill and Mortimers Lane, with small infill sites around Allbrook.  In addition, the developers Highwood propose 72 hectares (178 acres) of development on EBC designated ‘priority diversity areas’. Developments are already underway building in these supposedly protected areas.  The plan necessitates a 6.5 kilometre-long distributor road running from Mortimers Lane to the M3 at Allbrook, through some of the prettiest green fields in Hampshire.  The development would be broken up by 16 Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation, and would stretch all the way up to the South Downs National Park at Lower Upham, all of which would be put at risk by putting houses right next door to them.

The distributor road would use the existing bridge at Allbrook.  Despite the fact that lorries regularly get jammed under this bridge and the bridge floods, there are no plans to address these problems.

Further, the best option for a local centre for the development would be on Mortimers Lane.  Even here only a minority of the total number of homes would be within 1 kilometre (walkable distance) of the local centre, making this development highly car dependent, with no public transport other than buses to connect it to Eastleigh or other centres.

Meanwhile, as shown in this map, options D and E would comprise 240 hectares (593 acres) of development clustered around a new local centre with a new railway station (proposed by the Solent LEP in its latest report on strategic investment) connecting direct to Eastleigh and, with the LEP’s proposed new rail loop, to central Southampton.  Most of the new homes would be within 1 kilometre (walkable distance) of the local centre.  A new road running direct to Eastleigh would provide a South Bishopstoke bypass, and there is the potential to provide the missing Junction 6 on the M27.

A landscaped buffer running north of the M27 would avoid coalescence with West End and there is also scope for a landscape buffer strip south of Fair Oak / Bishopstoke.  Meanwhile, a biodiversity corridor would link the Itchen Valley Country Park to other Sites of Importance for Nature Conversation in the area.

ADD UPDATE, 9 September 2016: We will be holding a Village Meeting for Upham and Owlesbury residents (only, due to capacity restrictions) on the Eastleigh Local Plan 2016-36 at 7.30pm on Thursday 29 September 2016 in Upham School Hall. If options B and C go ahead, we will have a new settlement of over 6,000 new homes, twice the size of Bishop’s Waltham, on the unspoilt countryside south of Upham, between Fair Oak and Bishopstoke and reaching right up to the boundaries of the South Downs National Park.  This could result in 30,000 extra car journeys each day, creating dangerous traffic levels on our local lanes. We believe that this development is neither deliverable nor sustainable but, if we do nothing, it will happen. Come to the meeting to hear how the planning process is progressing, what happens next and how, together, we can fight this proposal. Refreshments available. Parking limited so please walk or share cars where possible.

ADD UPDATE, 7 September 2016: Our new website, and recent postings, have led to a massive surge in interest in our campaign to ensure Eastleigh Borough Council chooses the right Local Plan. We now urgently need more volunteers to staff our campaign and maintain this remarkable momentum. If you have experience in, or would like to turn your hand to helping us with, issues like digital media, PR, journalism, fundraising, research, planning, the law, leafleting or indeed anything you think we might need, please get in touch today. You would join a stimulating and fun group, pulling together for a cause we’re passionate about, and we would love to have you board!

Rob Byrne, 3 September 2016: In this brilliant new video, Rob Byrne reveals the truly shocking scale of Eastleigh Borough Council’s development plans north of Bishopstoke, so-called options B and C. From Lower Upham and the South Downs in the east to the motorway junction at Chandler’s Ford in the west. Starting with East Horton Golf Club, at the far south-eastern extremity of option C, which would be completely built on, Rob takes us through an extremely disturbing journey through what – for now – remains some of the UK’s finest countryside. Help us prevent this outrage now!

Eastleigh MP Mims Davies has backed a petition by local activists demanding the Chickenhall Link Road is built.

Mims met with Councillor Gin Tidridge, the petition’s coordinator from Bishopstoke Parish Council, yesterday to give her support to pressure group Action Against Destructive Development (ADD) in its campaign to “Get The Chickenhall Lane Link Road Moving” which has been supported by over 400 local residents.

The petition is asking the leaders of Eastleigh Borough Council, the Solent LEP and Hampshire County Council, as well as the Chancellor and Ministry for Transport, to back Mims Davies’s continuing call for this long required road to be built.

CPRE Hampshire, 31 August 2016: Since a fairly frustrating Eastleigh Borough Council (EBC) meeting at the end of July, CPRE Hampshire has been working alongside ADD on the next steps to fight options B and C.  CPRE asks you take the time to sign the petition to “Get the Chickenhall Lane Link Road Moving” – see link in article.  If this road was built it would open up a number of more appropriate development options for the council.

Chris Tomkins/Rob Byrne, 29 August 2016: This great aerial photo by Chris Tomkins shows the extent of the destruction that options B and C would cause. Stoke Common Road is at the bottom of the picture, with Upper Barn and Crowdhill Copses in the middle of the picture, and Stoke Park Woods on the right. At the far top is the countryside north of Mortimer Lane, Fair Oak heading towards Upham. It’s important to realise the open countryside you see is only two thirds of the total ‘new town’ Eastleigh Borough Council is thought to be planning as Allbrook, Highbridge and the M3 are not visible.

Rob Byrne, 29 August 2016: In this video, Rob Byrne gives us a detailed exposé of the likely scale of the destruction that Eastleigh’s Lib Dem council are considering north of Bishopstoke – options B and C of their proposed Local Plan. It currently appears these options are – incredibly – the council’s favoured plan, so take a look at these stunning images now before it is too late.

Rob Byrne, presentation to Eastleigh Borough Council, 21 July 2016: I wish to register my opposition to this massive new town, aka options B and C, set to blight our villages.

I’d like to tell you about the rich wildlife habitat around the various fields and woods we locals refer to as Stoke Park Woods, and the fact that in the past the 4th Bishopstoke Brownies won a national award for a study of flora and fauna which was presented by David Bellamy in Northampton.

I’d like to tell you about over six miles of rights of way that will be lost.

I’d like to tell you about the incredible number of people that are able to access those rights of way by foot. Indeed a breakdown of figures collated over four days shows over 80% are from Bishopstoke, Fair Oak and Colden Common. This is in line with the previous Local Plan’s desire to see more access to the countryside without recourse to the car. Although 20% were also from as far afield as Romsey, Downton and Guildford following internet walks.

I’d like to remind you of the Hampshire County Council countryside access plan for the Forest of Bere, which highlights the need for more horse and cycle access. I’d contend that Stoke Park is superior for recreation to the large Forest of Bere woodland in Wickham, due to it’s diverse woodland, extensive views and the River Itchen – all of which combine to make marvellous walks and rides.

I’d like to remind you of the huge opposition from groups such as Eastleigh Ramblers, 12th Eastleigh Scouts, the Campaign to Protect Rural England and the Woodland Trust.

I’d like to invite councillors to take a guided walk with me but I’ve already done that in conjunction with ADD and Guess what ?…… Not one bothered.

All these facts are clear to see in the submissions to the planning office, so as much as I would like to wax lyrical….. I won’t.

WHY ????

Because this whole process smacks of predetermination both to force through this option and to ignore the people of this borough who have responded in there thousands to oppose this.

My family, London Irish, arrived here over a hundred years ago and helped build this town, I hold in my hand a medal my dad was given by King Edward VIII in 1936 for the incorporation of Eastleigh as a borough, on it is the crest of that brave new town, with it’s motto SALUS POPULI SUPREMA LEX (“the welfare of the people is the supreme law”) which indeed Mr Mayor [Councillor Des Scott] is emblazoned across the top of the stage, above your very head.

Councillors, make yourselves worthy of your predecessors, names like Bradshaw, Quilley, and Soar. Listen to the people and save our beautiful accessible countryside, you have your own minds, you are not sheep, you are human beings! Thank you.