Plea to regenerate Fleet and Hart urban areas
An important letter has been published in Fleet News and Mail, pleading for the Hart Local Plan to be altered to include plans to regenerate Fleet and our other urban areas.
The author of the letter first sympathises with the plight of councillor Parker who voted reluctantly for the Local Plan. Councillor Parker said ‘an appalling plan is better than no plan at all’.
However, he goes onto criticise the CCH/Lib Dem leadership of the current administration, in particular calling out the two councillors who defected from Conservative to Community Campaign Hart without calling by-elections.
The main plea from the letter though is:
..our dysfunctional cabinet has ignored pleas for the [Local] plan to deliver regeneration of the urban areas (especially Fleet) and has favoured unnecessary greenfield development….
Since the change in administration last year, HDC has become less transparent, and does not encourage engagement with the electorate.
Meetings in public do not welcome participation from the public, and the bureaucracy is weighted in favour of councillors and officers.
Interestingly, the author comes from Fleet.
We could not agree more. The disastrous policy SS3 setting out plans for an unnecessary new town should be dropped from the Local Plan. In the fullness of time, this policy should be replaced by plans to regenerate Fleet and other urban areas. Please join us in delivering this message when the consultation is launched.
Totally agree about the regeneration. Why would people want to come to Fleet? Some local pubs that don’t have the character of some of the rural ones, a shopping centre with more coffee shops than actual retail outlets, a plethora of charity shops – always a sign that landlords are having trouble renting out properties – and a high street that, frankly, has seen better days.
The local plan would have been an excellent opportunity to include details of how they are going to regenerate the major conurbations in the district – Fleet, Yateley and Hook – and yet there doesn’t appear to be anything in there about that. Where are all these residents of the proposed new town going to go? Farnborough? Aldershot? Basingstoke?
Random person from Fleet writes to express their opinion and it’s news! Anyway, yes, agreed, please send feedback to the consultation as the article says. But not for more houses, which Fleet does not need and will further damage the town. After all, Fleet and Church Crookham is already being extensively developed with new housing and Fleet is now getting an additional new extension at Hartlands. So, surely enough is enough for housing in Fleet? As another random resident of Fleet, what Fleet town centre needs is more businesses. The issue in Fleet is not the number of people available to visit, but it is giving people a reason to visit. The council and local commercial landlords should focus on giving the town an clear identify, reduce the cost of entry into the town for new business and market Fleet as a place to visit.