Over the last 6 months the Planning Development team and Councillors at EHDC have been working on the Allocations Plan, of the Second part of the Local Plan. This sets the sites where development will be located outside of the settlement policy boundary, and once it has gone through its consultation and examination will be a final and robust measure for planning in Horndean, and across EHDC.
For this blog I will set out the housing sites South of Butser in all three parishes as we all have a wider interest in the area.
This is the best fit possible with the community consultations on where to build which were organised by the District Councillors here, and have since been used as a template across the district. There is however a lot of science behind the allocations and the sites have been picked based on sustainability and suitability. Clearly the community at large was also able to come to the right conclusions too.
The Next Steps:
29th October 2014 – The draft plan was approved by the Development Policy Panel at EHDC last night by the Councillors on that committee for endorsement to Cabinet at EHDC.
6th November 2014 – The Draft Pan will be discussed at an EHDC Cabinet Meeting. I am a member of Cabinet and also on the Development Policy Panel. Having supported the proposals at DPP I will be supporting this at Cabinet too.
4th December – If approved at Cabinet, the draft plan will go to full Council for public consultation
19th December – If approved at EHDC Council there will be a 6 week Public Consultation process with local exhibitions which will run to the 6th February.
Comments are then incorporated into the plan and a revised version is then issued.
This is followed by a 6 week public consultation where developers and other interested parties will review and comment.
The plan is then submitted to the Secretary of State for approval and an inspector is assigned
A public examination process then begins and if the inspector feels the plan is robust and has considered the best sites then it is approved.
This process takes about 10 months in all.
What can you do?
If you disagree with the options that have been chosen then the public consultation time is the right time to raise this, and why. If you agree with the plans then it is important to say that you do. Do not rely on other people alone to do this, people are more likely to make the time to comment on something they do not agree with.
The EHDC Special Planning Forum at 7:00pm on the 10th November at Barton Hall, Horndean Technology College is the perfect time to come along and do this.
To read the full version of the Draft Allocation plan and see the maps click on this link here: EHDC Draft Allocation Plan
Thank you to the team at EHDC who have worked exceptionally long hours, attended dozens of meetings and held several consultations to progress this. If this is good news to you please can you consider a thank you email to them on planning-policy@ehdc.gov.uk
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