Campaigners turn out in force for a major debate on new homes (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Campaigners turn out in force for a major debate on new homes

5:00pm Friday 30th July 2010 in

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CAMPAIGNERS cheered the news that three sites earmarked for 1,900 new houses are to be looked at again by borough chiefs.

At a meeting overflowing with members of the public, the planning and infrastructure committee of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council voted that two sites on the eastern edge of Basingstoke and one at Down Grange, in Kempshott, should be re-examined by senior officers.

The sites to the east are both in the environmentally-sensitive Loddon valley. They are Poors Farm, which is earmarked for 900 homes, and a 67-hectare farmland site on the edge of Chineham, which Hampshire County Council wants to develop into another 900 homes.

The Down Grange site is an area of playing field that the county council is seeking to turn into 100 houses.

The borough council’s corporate director Karen Brimacombe and legal chief Christopher Guy will now see if the three sites can be left out of the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) within the rules laid down by Government.

The SHLAA is a hit-list of sites put forward for development by landowners and developers as councillors start deciding where development has to take place in the borough until 2026.

Although the two sites in the Loddon valley are to be reviewed after the vote at Monday night’s meeting, a third – for 1,500 houses at Lodge Farm - is to remain in the SHLAA.

The sites discussed at the meeting were four from a list of 32 that individual councillors suggested did not meet the criteria for inclusion in the SHLAA and should therefore be reconsidered.

As many as 150 people, many from the campaigning group Save Our Loddon Valley and Environment (SOLVE), packed out the committee rooms to address and cajole the committee members.

The committee was only able to work through four out of the 17 sites on its agenda because of the strength of feeling and number of speakers from the public.

Basing ward Councillor Onnalee Cubitt failed in her attempt to have all the 32 “called-in” sites dumped out of the SHLAA through a committee vote.

She said consultation exercises made it clear that these sites were not wanted by taxpayers: “If we believe in people power, we will want to do what the public wants.”

But committee chairman Cllr Stephen Reid said such a move would mess up the whole planning process, and a majority of councillors backed him in a vote.

He admitted, however, that the new Coalition Government’s abolition of imposed housing targets has muddied the waters. The borough is no longer expected to accommodate 945 new homes every year, but it is not known what will come instead, he said.

Cllr Cubitt’s call to throw out all the contentious sites was backed by Labour councillors Paul Harvey and Sean Keating.

Independent councillor Martin Biermann said, despite national policy shifts, developers were using the SHLAA as a legal basis for planning applications. He said: “We could be doing a good deal of harm by putting sites in the SHLAA.”

At the end of the meeting, Cllr Reid said the sites not discussed on Monday’s agenda were likely to be considered in August. The committee will tonight attempt to decide whether the remaining 15 of the 32 sites called in by councillors, should be reviewed by Mrs Brimacombe and Mr Guy.