East Hampshire District Council has frozen its share of Council Tax for the forthcoming year, one of only a handful of councils around the country to do so. The freeze follows two consecutive cuts, bringing Council Tax down to 2010 levels.

The decision, unanimously agreed by EHDC at its Full Council meeting last night, forms part of our ongoing ambition to be financially self-sufficient and no longer reliant on either Government grants or Council Tax.

EHDC is committed to having the capacity to reduce Council Tax to zero. When that happens we may still charge a nominal tax and use the proceeds to deliver new or better services. To achieve this the council has set itself ambitious targets to generate income through means such as selling skills and property investment while also providing our services more efficiently. These methods have allowed the council to make two consecutive cuts in Council Tax – the only council in the country to achieve this – backed up by this year’s freeze.

Our commitment to keeping Council Tax low has been held up by our innovative approach to public services. Instead of relying on government grants and increases in Council Tax we have looked for new ways of making and saving money.

This includes investing in property, especially commercial properties with high-value long term tenancies where there is very low risk.

We have also been selling services to other local authorities, looked for other ways to share costs with other Councils and offered services to local businesses.

EHDC has also been working hard to provide its services more efficiently and is always looking for new ways to provide excellent public services at a lower cost.

Council Tax will be frozen for 2018/19 at £131.11 for a Band D property.

Hampshire County Council are increasing their precept by 5.99% which is a 2.99% increase for their core services and 3% specifically to support adult social care pressures. For a Band D property this equates to an extra £1.31 per week or £65 per year.

To read more about the HCC increase click on this link HERE

Sally and the team are back out this Sunday 25th February to do a Horndean and Clanfield Litter Pick and all are welcome as always. Meeting time is 9:30 at the far end of Morrisons car park and new faces are welcome.

The map below shows the new proposed red wards for Catherington, Downs, Murray and a combined Kings, Blendworth and Rowlands Castle (including the War Memorial and village centre).

A few years ago the local plan was prepared (Where Housing will be built in the area) and this ran from 2016 to 2028. For Horndean this allocated the bulk of the new housing to Land East Of Horndean, and Clanfield to Windmill Farm.

The local plan needs to be reviewed every 5 years to make sure that we are on track with our housing delivery, and to leap a further 5 years forward so it is a rolling programme.

Housing Delivery.

Across EHDC we need to be building out about 600 homes per year (including in the South Downs National Park). For us to be able to control where housing goes and stick to the Local Plan, we need to have a 5 year supply of granted permissions, Currently we have about 7.5 years of permissions so can refuse development outside of the settlement policy boundary. Whitehill and Bordon, LEOH and some larger developments in Horndean have made significant contributions to this delivery.

We also need to be achieving 40% affordable housing outputs and have been doing well against this.

Look ahead to 2036. 

The next plan period will run to 2036 and we need to identify where these additional years housing will be allocated to ensure the infrastructure (schooling, highways etc) can go with it.

Essentially we will need to start looking at the ‘nest least worst’ places to build across the district.

Risks.

The housing need is calculated by a complex formula laid down by central government. We know that this (and past governments) have been looking for ways to increase the rate of building so they may change the formulae. The problem with this is that developers carefully balance supply and demand – they keep the house building rate at a point where it generates good prices and sales. build too many and you have cash tied up in homes that aren’t selling and need to reduce prices.

The South Downs National Park Authority is its own planning district and is a colossal NIMBY. The park has protection against development but they too need to take the right number of homes in the right places to prevent the park towns from stagnating.

Portsmouth also needs to allow for growth – but is fairly built out. that means adjacent areas need to take on their housing. We need to be making sure that Havant help here and this also generates more affordable housing.

The allocated sites for 2029 to 2036 need to be ring fenced for these years. this doesn’t want to be a way to enable early development of any new sites.

Next Steps.

EHDC is open to new housing – but in the right places and with the right facilities. We are looking to direct more new homes into the former army bases at Whitehill and Bordon but will need also to start considering options in Horndean and Clanfield again.

EHDC have announced another “call for sites” (invitation for land owners to put their land forward) at which point they are assessed for sustainability. I would anticipate that we will again hold local consultations to seek a view on which ones we should consider or rule out.

Again we will be looking to protect the sites we have in the past and over the next 18 months will need you to help by attending the consultations when they are announced. (probably later this year).

Keep reading this blog for updates and information on the next steps.

Carla Baverstock-Jones, Chief Officer at Horndean Parish Council together with two of her children and two members of the HPC Admin Team, will be Abseiling down the Spinnaker Tower for charity on 27th May 2018 to raise funds for the following two Charities:

PAPYRUS, who are the national charity for the prevention of young suicide.

SURVIVORS OF BEREAVEMENT BY SUICIDE CHARITY, who offer a unique and distinct service for bereaved adults across the UK, run by the bereaved for the bereaved.

There is a Virgin just giving page if people wish to donate to the event, with a link below.

While this is not an official HPC activity it would be great to support them in their bid!

Click HERE to support them

A short while ago the Boundary Commissions proposals to redraw the boundaries around the country were published and this proposed that the centre of Horndean would be absorbed by a new larger Rowlands Castle ward.

EHDC responded to the commission with an alternative proposal that retained the identity of Horndean in the village and stressed that the boundaries between Horndean and Rowlands Castle were stronger than the A3M. Thank you to those who responded too, the Boundary Commission noted that there were a lot of comments from residents.

So. The Boundary Commission have reviewed the comments from us, EHDC and the community and issued a revised proposal. This still combines Horndean and Rowlands Castle and now splits Kings ward between the current Catherington Lovedean ward and the proposed Rowlands Castle and Horndean ward. Their revised plan is just as illogical and makes little sense to any of us.

The red line plans below are the Boundary Commission’s revised proposals.

This would result in the following:

• Horndean Catherington with 1 Councillor
• Horndean Downs with 1 Councillor
• Horndean Kings, Blendworth & Rowlands Castle with 3 Councillors

The Boundary Commission having made this revised proposal are giving a further 4 weeks until the 5th March for comments on the revised plans and their press release is below:

Extra chance to have say on East Hampshire council boundaries

The independent Local Government Boundary Commission for England has opened a new phase of public consultation in its review of East Hampshire District Council’s ward boundaries. The consultation focuses on new proposals for ward boundaries in Alton and Horndean.

New proposals (shown in red on map) include substantial changes to the Commission’s previous plans (in black).

Local people have until 5 March 2018 to have their say on the proposals before the Commission finalises its recommendations for new wards across the whole district.

Late last year, the Commission held a public consultation on proposals for new ward boundaries across East Hampshire. The Commission has listened to the views put to it during consultation and now proposes to make changes to the plans. Due to the significance of the proposed changes in Horndean, the Commission is opening an extra phase of consultation to see what local people think of the new recommendations.

Details of the recommendations, including maps of the proposals, are available on the Commission’s website www.lgbce.org.uk and on this link Here

My initial initial thoughts are the following:

• The centre of Horndean and Blendworth represent the oldest parts of the village and have a strong sense of community as one area. It is important to retain this distinct ward area for the centre of the village
• The boundary commission acknowledges that “East Hampshire District Council submitted an alternative warding pattern for the Horndean area comprising a pattern of six single-councillor wards. The wards proposed by the District Council generally used clear and identifiable boundaries and were supported by the information provided in the other submissions received about the Horndean area.”
• The boundary between Horndean and Rowlands Castle needs to be moved to the south to Havant Thicket to allow all of the future Land East of Horndean to be included in Horndean and the community they will contain.
• The boundary commission states that “We do not consider we have yet received sufficient evidence of community identity to justify a separate Rowlands Castle ward with 15% more electors than the average for East Hampshire.” We believe that the communities of Rowlands Castle and Horndean are very separate identities and separated by 5 miles and significant stretches of woodland. There is little synergy between the communities of Rowlands Castle or Horndean with minimal common retail, social or community activities. The two parishes keep theirselves very much to theirselves and it is more important to help them protect their unique identities than blend them together.

The website gives you a chance to comment on the latest plans and you are also able to upload a map to show what you would like to see instead. It looks like the commission need to be sufficiently convinced whether or not there are strong links with Rowlands Castle. You can view and comment on the link in the press release above. The map below is the EHDC submission and if you wished to copy and send it on please feel free.

I will publish the EHDC response when it is issued!

Last year Horndean Tyres was robbed when a safe containing £29,000 was broken into  at 1:00am on the 9th March 2017 following a fake call out for a tyre blowout at the Hindhead Tunnel which resulted in an employee being ambushed and assaulted to gain access to the premises at night.

Jamie Gattrell, 34 from Paulsgrove and Jacob Jackson, 22 of Fareham attached a member of staff from the business with sledge hammers when he turned out to a fake call out and opened the workshop then tied him up before gaining access to the safes and stealing £29,000. They pleaded guilty last year after a police investigation.

The Judge, Stephen Climie, stated that he was considering sentences of 11 and 7 years respectively.

Gatrell was a former employee who was sacked in 2015 following a fight with another employee and knew where the safe was, and how to gain access out of hours. As the ring leader his sentence will be significantly longer.

While the two robbers were removing the safe the employee managed to escape and run to The Premier Inn opposite and raise the alarm but Gatrell and his accomplice (who was only paid £4,000 of the £29,000 haul) were able to escape before the police arrived.

The police suspected that the intimate knowledge of the location of the safe meant a former employee was involved. Mounting evidence including a car used in the theft and phone records between Jackson and Gatterell led to clear proof of guilt.

Gatterell was the instigator and brought Jackson into the theft. He claims that he has a heavy cocaine habit and used the stolen money to pay off debts and as such there is nothing left to return.

Well done to the local police for a good result on such a violent crime.

Horndean Tyres have supported local projects like the re-building of the Horndean War Memorial and as a good local employer with many local employees providing a local service it is good to know that those responsible have been found guilty.