The Joint Core Strategy (East Hants shared Local Plan with the SDNP) has been completed and is now available for public consultation.
This provides the long term planning framework for the district to 2028 and contains policies against which planning applications will be assessed. For us the most important of these is to preserve local gaps and protect areas like White Dirt Farm from development, and sets the overall development needs for the district by balancing the need to attract investment with the protection of important nature, buildings and the well-being of local communities.
The changes to the Joint Core strategy are out for consultation from 9th August to 20th September. All comments received will be sent to the Planning Inspector for consideration through the examination process. The Examination by the inspector is scheduled to reconvene at the end of October.
Issues which affect us in Horndean are the large number of new houses that are required to satisfy not only our own needs for population growth, but also the overspill from the South Downs National Park where housing is limited due to the environmental status of the park.
If you wished to give feedback on the Joint Core Strategy then the notes below might be useful:
1 – Horndean (The Parish Of) had 5,240 homes in the 2011 census.
2 – We are being asked to take on 1,190 homes between 2011 and 2028, a 22.7% increase. You might have strong views that this increase is to great, is not sustainable for a collection of villages with poor public transport, no station and few employment sources.
3 – The percentage increase is greater than Petersfield, or Alton which you might note are far more sustainable towns than our collection of villages, and better suited to development as they have good local sources of employment.
4 – There are strong opinions that the South Downs National Park authority has not allowed for sufficient housing to address its own needs and that this must be increased. You might strongly agree with this view, and that it is not appropriate for adjacent towns to take any excess burden to preserve the idealogical views of the park who have not got the right balance of environmental concerns and housing needs of their own.
You can send feedback to East Hants by email: ldf@easthants.gov.uk or by letter to the Planning Policy Team, East Hampshire District Council, Penns Place, Petersfield, Hampshire GU31 4EX) no later than 5.00pm on Friday 20 September 2013. Every response is viewed by the inspector, and the more times he sees the views above, the better (if you happen to share them…)
This link here will take you to the JCS as it now stands:
http://www.easthants.gov.uk/ehdc/planningpolicy.nsf/webpages/Further+Proposed+Modifications+-+August+2013
This link will take you straight to the coloured up JCS which shows the changes that are proposed. CP21 Page 77 talks about Local Gaps. This protects White Dirt Farm in that development will NOT be allowed unless it can not be located elsewhere. There are a number of other options for development, but getting our required total down will help keep Horndean a village, and safeguard this for the future – 2028 and on:
http://www.easthants.gov.uk/ehdc/formsfordownload.nsf/0/0D91C4EB5132E8BC80257BC20024DC1B/$File/JCS+Further+Mods+Text+Coloured+version+5+August+2013.pdf
This link takes you to Appendix 3 which is the table of housing numbers across EHDC, inside and outside of the park:
http://www.easthants.gov.uk/ehdc/formsfordownload.nsf/0/0608FC1BF08C510180257BC2002510AA/$File/Appendices+for+JCS+Revised+12+August.pdf
Please can you take 10 minutes to email the team and let them know your views on the housing numbers for Horndean, and I hope the notes above help.
Guy.
