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Aquind have held their first series of consultation on their proposed Interconnector and they advise that a total of 239 people visited and gave their views which were overall very supportive of the project.

Of the 12,942 residents of Horndean (2011 census) the attendance was not very large, especially as the 239 is across all three venues for the project from the coast to Lovedean.

For those who could not make the consultation click HERE to view the Aquind consultation boards that were presented.

Below are some of the extracts that are relevant to our community and I have also added in a poll for the same questions Aquind asked that affect us locally to see if we can get the same results.

The visitors were also invited to leave feedback on the presentation and one Lovdean resident is quoted below:

Why Lovedean?

Lovedean substation in Hampshire was identified as the optimal connection location for AQUIND Interconnector following an assessment by National Grid who have an obligation to develop and maintain an efficient, coordinated and economical electricity transmission network. The assessment considers factors such as National Grid’s knowledge of the existing network (including agreed future connections), agreed cost information, environmental considerations and other constraints associated with the project, alongside input from AQUIND on the details of the assets to be connected.
The converter station needs to be located as close as possible to the substation, in order to minimise the length of AC cable used as part of the interconnector. This is because AC cables take up a wider corridor of land when compared to DC cables. Therefore, in order to reduce impact on land, it is favourable to maximise the use of DC cables, which take up a considerably narrower corridor compared to AC cables. AC cables also have higher transmission losses and pose other technical challenges, meaning that a longer AC cable would partly offset and reduce the benefits of the interconnector.

The consultation boards on the converter station show a possible design. Remember, this is up to 22m tall and covering 6 to 9 Hectares of land.

Once the poll has run for a while I will update it with the results.

The next litter pick will be on the 25th March 2018 starting again at Morrisons Car Park at 9:30am. Sally and the team hope to see regular and new volunteers. All are welcome and equipment is provided!

There have been a number of theft from vehicles reported to Police over the last 48 hrs across the Butser Sector. Theft from vehicles is now a district priority and as such your local neighbourhood policing team will remain committed to supporting victims of crime and targeting offenders.

Locations of Recent Theft from Vehicles:

• Oak Leaf Way,
• Juniper Road,
• Holdenhurst Close – Horndean,
• Valley Park Drive,
• Homefield Way – Clanfield

Please read our advice below:

• Park your vehicle in a secure area (in a garage or behind locked gates, if possible).
• If you can’t, park in a well-lit street in easy view of your own or neighbours’ houses.
• Where possible, remove valuable items from the vehicle overnight and store them in a secure place.
• Do not leave tools or equipment on view inside the vehicle.
• Consider fitting an appropriate alarm system, protecting the cabin and load areas.
• Apply a security marking product to power tools and equipment. Alternatively, etch or emboss identifiable marks to these items.
• Consider installing secure storage containers or lockers in the van to store tools in.
• Ensure that the van doors are securely lockable and consider having suitable deadlocks installed.
• Make sure to physically check that the van doors and windows are locked if you have used the remote to lock the vehicle, even if the feedback indicates the van as locked.
• When visiting businesses, try to park close to the entrance and preferably in the view of CCTV
• Log your property for free at www.immobilise.com

Please ensure you are vigilant at all times, calling police to report any suspicious activity, not just around your own property but anything suspicious in your residential area and community. In an emergency use 999 or 101 for non-emergency. It is not too late to report any suspicious activity to police.

During the recent bad weather HCC and other organisations carried out extensive works keeping roads open despite some difficult weather conditions.

The email below is an update email from Stuart Jarvis, Director of Economy, Transport and Environment at Hampshire County Council and gives a good close out on the works carried out, resources used and some of the damage we will see due to potholes etc. It was a very good update and has been posted here with Stuarts permission.

As a country we are not generally well equipped for snow – it happens so infrequently that it is not worth the cost to invest in dealing with it to the same level of ability of other countries for whom it is routine. The email below gives a good idea of the works carried out to keep our roads as open and passable as possible.

Dear MPs, Members and Partners

A final note from me on the winter weather event we have just been through in respect of Hampshire Highways Teams.  I’m glad to see that the thaw has arrived; we’ve certainly been through a tough few days that have fully stretched resources.  I’m pleased to say that we managed to keep main routes on Hampshire’s local network open and passable with care for most of the time during the severe weather; though diverting traffic following the closure of the A34 did cause us some additional problems on the diversion routes.  The severe cold, strong winds and rapid accumulation and drifting of snow, once it started falling on Thursday afternoon caused challenges everywhere, and particularly on our higher routes, as well as causing problems for Highways England on the strategic road network especially the A31 across the Forest, and on rail services in south western Hampshire.

Our greatest challenge came from the highest points of the road network, particularly in the North and West of the county and on the A272 just outside Winchester.  Here, despite continual work, the snow drifting off fields onto the road caused us particular problems at Cheesefoot Head, which, in the end needed one JCB, a gritter and two tractors with snow ploughs  to shift the snow and ice to make the road passable again.

We had started to ramp on winter operations from the previous Saturday, making sure all routes (P1, P2 and community routes) were treated more than once with salt to tackle ice and prepare for snow. From 6am on Thursday, we moved to continuous round the clock gritting, deployed contracted farmers with HCC snow ploughs, mobilised our framework contractors and supplied our district colleagues with salt to support their efforts to keep shopping areas, main footways and car parks clear.  We issued lots of advice to residents to be prepared and avoid all but essential travel. As predicted, the snow started to fall in earnest on Thursday afternoon, and we managed to keep the majority of the main network clear in spite of traffic build up, minor accidents and abandoned cars.  As always, I was struck by the commitment of our staff, partners, contractors and volunteers, including 4×4 drivers, to keeping the roads open and help stranded road users, during difficult circumstances.  This included lots of work on Saturday and Sunday to tackle outstanding problems and try to restore normal conditions.  Even this morning there were some residual problems of drifted snow remaining on a few of the smaller highest routes in the County.

Travel conditions have largely returned to normal now, but there will be a long tail to the snow, with recovery across our whole road network likely to take many months. The damage inflicted by the snow and ice across the county, on already fragile roads, will be significant.  We have a massive challenge on our hands.  The first phase is to ensure safety on the network and tackle safety defects.  Given the scale of the damage we’ll need to make extensive use of temporary repairs and will be sending out find and fix gangs and programmed repair teams to do this essential emergency work.  With our revenue budget already under pressure, it is likely to be around 12 months before we can bring back the whole network to the state it was before, and we will need to review and reprioritise our 2018/19 maintenance programme in order to do this.  We are, therefore, calling on the Government to make additional funding available to help authorities who have been badly hit to restore their networks as quickly as possible, for example by an early decision to increase funding available through the government’s ‘Pothole Fund’.  Any help or support that MPs are able to give for this would be particularly welcome, as we look at a likely multi million pound repair bill.

Regards Stuart Jarvis Director of Economy, Transport and Environment

Over the last 24 hours we have received reports of vehicles being broken into and valuables stolen. The vehicles were parked in beauty spot car parks at the time of the break ins.

Please can you insure that if you are parking your vehicle away from your home in an unattended car park that you secure or remove all valuables from your vehicle and lock the vehicle. Below are some more pointers for securing your vehicle while parked in public car parks:

When leaving your car, close all windows and lock your car.

Upon locking your vehicle try your car door to ensure it is actually locked. (updated advice)

Park your car in an attended car park.

Look for public car parks approved by the Park Mark scheme.

Don’t leave anything on display in your vehicle.

Take all your personal possessions with you.

Remove sat nav holders and visible sat nav ring marks from windscreens.

Leave the glove box open to show there’s nothing inside.

Fit an alarm or immobiliser to your car.

Record the details of your property on the Immobilise website.

Do not store your car’s documents in the car.

More information about alarms can be found on the Thatcham and Sold Secure websites.

A short while ago The Boundary Commission proposed to join Rowlands Castle to the centre of Horndean in a two-member ward called “Rowlands Castle”. This attracted no support whatever from local people or Councillors.

Following our response citing concerns that there were no strong ties between the Horndean and Rowlands Castle communities and that either village being represented by Councillors only from the adjacent one would be bad for that village they issued a revised proposal for a three-member ward to include Rowlands Castle and even more of Horndean to include Kings Ward. We thought this was even more unacceptable.

Knowing that this was also likely to be controversial they extended the consultation period to the 5th March on their revised proposals (Boundary Commission Knows Best 6th Feb 2018)

The problem was: “How can we arrange ward boundaries so that the number of electors in each ward will be roughly the same by 2023 whilst accounting for the numbers of new homes that are going to be built here and maintaining single Councillor wards?

Local Councillors, Elaine Tickell, Malcolm Johnson and David Evans have worked closely with EHDC Officers on the very hard task of producing a workable solution that the Boundary Commission would find acceptable. We believe this proposal achieves this and the submission to the commission can be downloaded on this link Horndean and Rowlands Castle Submission Final 1

The recent poll results showed that 94% of people responding also support separate wards. If you still feel this is important (or agree with the commission views) please can you contact the commission and tell them. Right now we need your support to get this point through to them.

Please download the submission and email it to the commission and you can do so on this link HERE

Apologies but there are only a few days to do this by the 5th March. there has been a lot of discussion with the Boundary Commission to try to get a proposal that addresses their criteria.

Here are the proposed ward maps (Downs ward remains pretty much the same):

Neighbourhood Watch isn’t just about preventing crime – we’re a movement with neighbourliness at our heart and with this cold weather dug in we wanted to send a friendly request to our supporters to check on any elderly or vulnerable neighbours if you can.

Many people are waiting out the weather at home and some won’t have been able to get out for several days now so a friendly knock from a neighbour is welcome. Maybe they need a pint of milk or a can of beans to get them through to the thaw, or a path swept or their dog walked?

Of course your safety is important too – so please think about that and only venture out if you can do so safely.

Thanks to all our supporters for your neighbourliness and all that you do – in good weather and bad –  for your communities.

To find out more about Neighbourhood Watch Click on this link here

Message Sent By Lisa Parker (NHWN, Register Administrator, England & Wales)

Readers of this blog will know about Aquind, the proposed new electricity installation by Lovedean Sub station.

This proposed new structure covering between 15 and 22.5 acres of land would, if approved, incorporate buildings up to 22m tall. This would be the UK connection point for a France / UK under sea power cable to send electricity either way at peak demand when either country is not generating enough for their own needs. This will probably be us as we are not getting on with our power station replacement effectively.

The investors behind this scheme have submitted an EIA Screening Application to both East Hants and Winchester for two different possible locations which are shown on the map below:

What is an EIA Screening Application?

EIA stands for Environment Impact Assessment. This identifies the type of submission and consultation period that any subsequent planning application must take. It is NOT a planning application where a decision will be issued but one step before to clarify the level of detail that would be required to accompany any application.

What is the purpose of Environmental Impact Assessment?

The aim of Environmental Impact Assessment is to protect the environment by ensuring that a local planning authority when deciding whether to grant planning permission for a project, which is likely to have significant effects on the environment, does so in the full knowledge of the likely significant effects, and takes this into account in the decision making process. The regulations set out a procedure for identifying those projects which should be subject to an Environmental Impact Assessment, and for assessing, consulting and coming to a decision on those projects which are likely to have significant environmental effects.

The aim of Environmental Impact Assessment is also to ensure that the public are given early and effective opportunities to participate in the decision making procedures.

The EIA covers the following: Traffic and Transport, Air Quality, Noise and Vibration, Landscape and Visual, Heritage and Archaeology, Ecology and Arboriculture, Socio-Economics, Water resources and flood risks, Ground Conditions, Carbon and Climate Change, Human Health, Soils and land Use, Electric and Magnetic Fields, Waste and Material Resources.

The application supporting documentation includes a number of drawings and details of the entire project including the details of the works on the France side of the proposed installation, undersea works and cable route from Southsea to Lovedean. In part it is a very informative description of the whole project. It also makes hunting for the relevant information for us a little harder.

So. The most important question – “Where is it going?” – Well, We, and Aquind, they say, don’t know. They have 2 possible locations. One in East Hants and one in Winchester. So, they have submitted an EIA screening application to both planning authorities.

Ultimately as a private enterprise (this is not a government backed scheme or identified as a project of national importance) they will be looking for 1) the installation most likely to get planning and 2) lowest cost installation. At this point they have most likely identified the site with the lowest purchase and installation cost.

As Lovedean Substation straddles the boundaries of two planning authorities there is no reason why they should look at options in each. It gives a chance to weigh up how each local authority feels about the installation. On this scheme being as confident as possible about planning has a far greater value than the cost difference between the two land options. Genius.

In one option, Winchester will be weighing up a project on the outer fringes of their district with less local representation but with the SDNPA having greater interest. In the other case in EHDC with lots of local representation and probably a harder application. At this point it is important to note that the planning officers at EHDC and Winchester are discussing the project between them to ensure a joined up approach which may work against Aquind as multiple minds are considering this now and may result in a more substantive reply.

So will there be an EIA?

In short, yes. The applicant has stated that they would prepare and submit one and the scoping report in pages 150 to 157 identifies what they propose to submit. The next step would be for each local authority to assess if they agree with this, or require further information.

Scoping Report Page 8:

The Proposed Development does not constitute either Schedule 1 Development or Schedule 2 Development. However, due to the environmental and human sensitivities within and surrounding the Proposed Development, the Applicant has chosen to voluntarily undertake an EIA and prepare and submit an ES with the Application to report the likely significant effects.

So, this application isn’t about if the development should proceed, but the level of detail required to support it. NOTHING will be decided in principal. Just the level of detail required to support it.

You can still give comments on the application and the cut off date is the 13th March. the best way is direct on the planning portal using the link below. You can also email Cllr Sara Schillemore who will either have it in her ward, or be the closest ward to it. She is on sara.schillemore@easthants.gov.uk

Cable Installation:

At this point it is worth looking at the works outside of the main building. They will, if allowed, be significant and incredibly disruptive.

Two Pairs of cables about 4m apart will be laid at a depth of 1.2m so the road will be dug up twice. (They cant be placed in the same excavation as the combined effect of the magnetic field becomes an issue).

The cable route passes through Portsmouth, Havant and into East Hants. Hampshire County Council have an interest outside of Portsmouth for the highway works too.

Looking ahead, there are a lot of hurdles for Aquind to jump through but cable installation is not going to stop a project like this. The key significant decider will be what planning authority they select for the designated target site and how that planning authority decides the application and any subsequent appeals that might take place.

We understand that an application will be submitted later this year.

View the EIA application on the EHDC planning portal click HERE

For more information on EIA in general click HERE

To view the full EIA screening supporting application report (174 pages long) click on this link EIA Scoping Report to download a PDF

To view the accompanying drawings for the application including the two possible locations, cable routes and more click on this link EIA Screening Drawings