horndeanmatters

This last Friday saw a consultation for the ‘Land East Of Horndean’ which was organised by planning consultants White Young Green on behalf of Highwood, Banner Homes and The Borrow Foundation. This could be our best answer to the housing need in Horndean, and also an opportunity to build in some great facilities for the Parish.

Some 500 people visited during the day and while not everyone is pleased (understandably) to see our Parish grow at this rate, the overwhelming mood was that the proposals could offer some good benefits for the Parish in return. Ultimately, I believe this is the ‘Least Worst’ place to build and so we should make the best use of the land and work with the developer to get the best facilities we can for the community.

WYG have an extended consultation period for comments to be given by email and you can open this by clicking on this link here: Consultation Form. This needs to be sent back by the 9th May at landeastofhorndean@wyg.com

The proposals look to include a number of facilities for the Parish including a cricket pitch and a care home. Highwood are the care home specialists and very much a part of this scheme, so there would be no danger of this not happening as with the Gales site. Their proposals are to develop the land to the top of their site as little as possible with spread out homes, some retirement bungalows and a care home set in the grounds of a cricket pitch and open green space. (See Character Area 1).

One of the concerns about any development is the provision of health care and schooling. We are working hard to get the surgery moved into the Gales development, and WYG have been in discussion with Hampshire County Council to see if the schools have capacity or not. This seems to be a moving target with County, so the plans allocate space for a new Secondary School if one is required.

The design also includes employment sites as well as a Community Building.

A very important part of this consultation is to let the developers know what facilities we want to see designed in if they were to get planning permission. At the moment based on recent surveys and feedback from the Parish Plan we are looking at:

Football fields, possible one Astroturf
Cricket Pitch and Pavillion
Allotments
Space for a Skate Park
Community Building
Woodland walks and open green space
Childrens play areas in dog free enclosures
Dedicated dog runs
Pond
Village Green

A very large number of these have been indicated on the drawings, but we now need you to give feedback on if these are what we would like to have incorporated, and most importantly, what facilities do we wish to see in the Community Building? A Gym? Indoor Courts? Space for clubs to hold events? Theater?

Please give feedback on what should be included and comment on this post to start the debate!

One thing was also very clear, the quality of information and the interest in community facility and to build a scheme to add value to Horndean was a stark contrast top the Taylor Wimpey consultation. WGY will also be holding a follow up consultation to represent the plans to show what comments have been included and I will post details here for when this will happen.

Here are links to all 12 of the presentation boards which are re-produced with the images above with the kind permission of WYG

1 – Introduction
2 – The Team and Planning Policy
3 – Context Analysis
4 – Opportunities and Constraints Analysis
5 – Development Framework
6 – Character Area 1
7 – Character Area 2
8 – Landscape Analysis
9 – Landscape And Movement Analysis
10 – Recreation And Play Spaces
11 – Community And Sports Facilities
12 – Local Facilities And Employment Opportunities