Tag Archives: We Heart Hart Campaign

We Heart Hart Campaign to protect the countryside in Hart District, Hampshire, England

Conservatives ousted from power at Hart Council

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Breaking News: Conservatives ousted from power on Hart Council

Conservatives ousted from power at Hart Council

In a dramatic move the Conservatives have been ousted from power at Hart Council. Even though they are the largest party, they hold only 14 of the 33 seats.

The joint Chief Executive, Patricia Hughes confirm the move in a tweet last night. Liberal Democrat party group leader Dave Neighbour has been elected as leader of the council. He announced the members of his cabinet, but not the respective portfolios. They will be councillors Ambler, Bailey, Cockarill, Collett, Oliver, Kinnell, James Radley. All these councillors are from the Liberal Democrats and CCH. This confirms there will be no places for the Conservatives.

[Update – Portfolio positions announced by Hart Council]

  • Cllr David Neighbour – Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance
  • Cllr James Radley – Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Services
  • Cllr Simon Ambler – Cabinet Member for Partnerships
  • Cllr Stuart Bailey – Cabinet Member for Housing
  • Cllr Graham Cockarill – Cabinet Member for Planning
  • Cllr Adrian Collett – Cabinet Member for Regulatory and Community Safety
  • Cllr Sara Kinnell – Cabinet Member for Leisure, Health and Wellbeing
  • Cllr Alan Oliver – Cabinet Member for Contracts

[/Update]

Liberal Democrat, Gerry Crisp will become chairman. The deputy chair position will be taken by Wendy Makepeace-Brown of CCH.

We understand the following people have been elected as chair of the various committees:

  • Chris Axam (CCH) – 5 councils partnership
  • Gill Butler (CCH) – Licensing
  • Graham Cockarill (Lib Dem) – Planning
  • Ken Crookes (Conservative) – Overview and Scrutiny
  • John Kennett (Conservative) – Staffing
  • Wendy Makepeace-Brown (CCH) – Audit

The council coup has been facilitated by the defection of two Tory councillors, Sara Kinnel and Richard Woods to CCH late last year. We do think that changes of party allegiance should lead to by-elections. Where such ‘crossing of the floor’ leads to a change in administration, the case for by-elections is unanswerable in our opinion.

We are yet to see what impact, if any, there will be on the Local Plan.

Hart Draft Local Plan Consultation – Our Response

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We Heart Hart Campaign Logo

We have been working hard to produce our response to the Hart Draft Local Plan Consultation. It has taken hours of work to go through the Local Plan document and the associated evidence base. And still more work to formulate what we think is a sensible response.

This is our last chance to shape our district for decades to come. So please do take the trouble to engage and respond.

A great deal of work has gone into the draft Local Plan, but there is much to comment upon and challenge. We have framed our response around several themes:

  1. The outrageous 10,185 housing target, 2,000 houses over the over-inflated 8,022 target outlined in the Strategic Housing Market Assessment.
  2. It is simply wrong to protect our derelict vacant offices from redevelopment
  3. The missed opportunity to regenerate our urban areas, most notably Fleet
  4. The lack of an infrastructure plan
  5. The absence of any financial analysis of the alternative ways of meeting our housing needs
  6. The unnecessary allocation of green field sites to the plan, in particular Murrell Green
  7. Challenge the sustainability assessment that ranks Winchfield as the next best green field option.

Over the coming days and weeks, we will be adding further detail to our comments. But for now, we have produced a summary version of our response. This is available for download below. Please do download it and review it. Please do make amendments into your own words and submit it to [email protected] before the deadline of 5pm on 9th June 2017. All of the Council’s consultation documents can be found here.

The document we have provided is in the Council’s ‘Word’ format, ready for you to add your personal details on the first pages, edit the comments provided and add your demographic details in the last pages.

 

Response to the Hart Draft Local Plan Consultation
Response to the Hart Draft Local Plan Consultation
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Independent Expert says Hart housing target is too high

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Alan Wenban-Smith of Urban and Regional Policy blasts Hart housing target

Independent expert, Alan Wenban-Smith has reviewed the latest Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) and concluded that the Hart housing target is way too high.

Regular readers may recall that the same expert examined the previous version of the SHMA and came to similar conclusions.

The crux of his arguments are as follows:

  1. The SHMA uses an inappropriate start-point for analysis. It uses the 2012-based population projections instead of the more up to date 2014-based projections. Making this change would knock around 850 houses off the start point
  2. The adjustments made for so-called market signals and affordable housing are inappropriate.
  3. The massive upwards adjustment for alleged jobs growth would result in loads more people moving to Hart. These people would then work elsewhere which is contrary to the sustainability principles of the National Planning Policy Framework

Taken together, his suggested adjustments would reduce the Hart housing target from around 8,000 to around 4,500. We have already built or planned more then 4,500 houses, so the Local Plan would become irrelevant.

We do not quite agree with all of his conclusions. If it were up to us, we would add some extra social rented housing to help those who cannot afford to even rent their own home.

But nevertheless, it is astonishing that Hart Council has decided to add a further 2,000 houses on to the already inflated SHMA. Hart’s approach is putting unnecessary pressure on our valuable green fields.

We will be compiling our suggested responses to the Local Plan consultation over the next few days. Please do keep checking in as we add further content.

The full report from Alan Wenban-Smith on the Hart housing target can be downloaded from the button below.

Independent Expert critique of Hart SHMA
Independent Expert critique of Hart SHMA
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Motion of No Confidence in Hart District Council submitted

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Breaking News: Motion of No Confidence submitted in Hart District Council

Motion of No Confidence submitted in Hart District Council

A motion of no confidence in Hart District Council has been submitted by Community Campaign Hart (CCH), (or as some call them Completely Concrete Hart) and the Liberal Democrats.

Apparently, they are unhappy that a new settlement at Winchfield has not been included in the Local Plan. They plan to push for Winchfield to be re-included if they manage to take over.

Community Campaign Hart (CCH) screwing up Hart Planning since 2004

We think this is a bad idea for a number of reasons:

  1. This will add extra delay to the Local Plan process, adding to the risk that sites like Grove Farm (Netherhouse Copse) and Pale Lane (Elvetham Chase) will be given the go ahead at appeal before the Local Plan can be put in place
  2. Winchfield has failed testing. The main issues with the proposal are:
    • groundwater and surface water flooding,
    • Cost of new road infrastructure and the need to travel to Fleet for main services
    • requirement for new wastewater treatment works
    • too much delivery risk concentrated in one site
    • impact on landscape
    • impact on heritage assets and SSSIs
  3. CCH have completely failed to oppose the main issue: we are being asked to build too many houses. Hart Council have arbitrarily added an extra 2,000 houses to the already inflated SHMA figure of 8,000, giving a total over 10,000 houses. Tackling this would mean we don’t need a new settlement at Winchfield or Murrell Green, nor would we need Pale Lane or Grove Farm
  4. A new settlement at Winchfield will likely have a major impact on congestion in Church Crookham and the western edge of Fleet.

We predict a stormy council meeting on 25 May.

[Update  – Statement from Conservative Council Leader]

Conservative Council Leader Stephen Parker commented:

We have a clear track record of success in running Hart Council. Despite cuts to Hart’s government funding we used Conservative ministerial contacts to reduce the cuts, froze Council tax for 6 years and made minimum increases for the last two years. At the same time we made innovative partnerships to make sure that no cuts were made to our services or to our support to the voluntary sector. We delivered the new Hart Leisure Centre, a superb facility which pays for itself with no increases to Hart’s Council tax. We listened to residents in making our Local Plan which maximises use of brownfield sites and protects our towns and villages from unwanted expansion. At no time in the last eight years of Conservative leadership have they challenged any of these successes. Residents will no doubt look forward to reading their joint manifesto.

[/Update]

[Update 2 – statement from CCH]

Statement about motion to bring about a vote for Council Leader

Until fairly recently Hart District Council had a democratic process of electing the council Leader every year at the AGM. This right was taken away by the then Conservative administration, presumably because they realised that as is the case now there would be times when they did not have a majority on the council.

The Conservatives forced through the instigation of a 4 year term for the council Leader, the maximum period they could have gone for without falling foul of legislation.

Out of 33 councillors there are 14 Conservative, 10 Community Campaign, 8 Lib Dems and 1 Hook Independent. No one party have the 17 councillors required to hold a majority on the council.

The Community Campaign have asked the current Leader if he’d be willing to continue as Leader with a proportional Cabinet made up of 3 Conservatives, 2 Lib Dems and 2 Community Campaign members. Given the proportionality of such a Cabinet it does not seem to be an unreasonable request.

We await his response. However, should the Conservatives not wish to work with a cross party partnership then we believe that the Council should have the right to elect a new Leader.

The nature of the council’s constitution is such that in order to bring about the opportunity to elect a new Leader a motion to withdraw support for the current leadership needs to be lodged 7 clear working days before the council’s AGM.
​
The full motion moved by Cllr. James Radley of the Community Campaign reads;
The council wishes to use this AGM, as it represents the traditional point in the municipal year, to undertake a vote for the leader of council. To bring about such a vote the constitution requires that a vote to remove the current leader first be tabled. To this end this council retracts support for the current leader and does so as required by the constitution by voting to ‘remove from office the current Leader of the Council and agrees that a new Leader should be elected forthwith’.

[/Update 2]

[Update 3: Lib dems tweet to say they don’t support new settlement at Winchfield]

NE Hants Lib Dems statement about Winchfield

[/Update 3]

Health and Safety Executive criticises Hart Council

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Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Logo

Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Logo

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has criticised Hart District Council for not clearly marking on a map the Major Accident Hazard pipelines that pass through the district.

Regular readers will recall that the Master Plan for the proposed new settlement at Murrell Green does not refer at all to the high pressure gas main that runs through the site.

Murrell Green high pressure gas main

Murrell Green development with high pressure gas pipeline

We alerted the HSE to this and invited them to comment on the Draft Local Plan that is currently out for consultation. They have written to Hart Council and identified two further potential issues:

We have concluded that there is the potential for land allocated in your plan to encroach on consultations zones.  The land allocations that could be effected (sic) are as follows

Map 30 – Murrell Green (Proposed Strategic Housing-led Development Policies SC1-SC4)

This allocation encroaches on the Southern Gas Networks High Pressure Pipeline – HSE Reference: 7067 Gaston Wood/Murrell Green(PO65)

It also has the possibility to encroach on the Southern Gas Networks High Pressure Pipeline – HSE Reference 7069 Crockmore Farm/Bramshill(P067)

Map 7 – Eversley Centre – SC5

This allocation has the possibility to encroach on the Southern Gas Networks High Pressure Pipeline – HSE Reference 7083 Bramshill/The Devil’s Highway(P086)

The HSE then go on to spell out their recommendations for how local authorities should identify such hazards in their Local Plans (emphasis ours)

Identifying Consultation Zones in Local Plans

HSE recommends that where there are major hazard establishments and MAHPs within the area of your local plan, that you mark the associated consultation zones on a map. This is an effective way to identify the development proposals that could encroach on consultation zones, and the extent of any encroachment that could occur. The proposal maps in site allocation development planning documents may be suitable for presenting this information. We particularly recommend marking the zones associated with any MAHPs, and HSE advises that you contact the pipeline operator for up-to-date information on pipeline location, as pipelines can be diverted by operators from notified routes. Most incidents involving damage to buried pipelines occur because third parties are not aware of their presence.

Clearly Hart Council has failed to follow Health and Safety Executive Guidelines.

The full letter from the HSE can be found here.

Hart Council launches Local Plan consultation

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Hart District Council Logo

Hart Council has launched a Regulation 18 consultation into the draft Local Plan. The consultation will be open until 5pm on 9 June 2017.

Drop in sessions will be running at the following dates and locations:

  • Tuesday 2 May – 2pm to 8pm – Hook Community Centre, RG27 9NN
  • Wednesday 3 May – 2pm to 8pm – The Harlington Centre, Fleet, GU51 4BY
  • Monday 8 May – 2pm to 8pm – Victoria Hall, Hartley Wintney, RG27 8RE
  • Wednesday 10 May – 2pm to 8pm – The Tythings, Yateley, GU46 7RP
  • Thursday 11 May – 2pm to 8pm – Ridley Hall, South Warnborough, RG29 1RQ
  • Monday 15 May – 4.30pm to 8pm – Hawley Leisure Centre, GU17 9BW

The consultation materials can be found here.

Once we have had chance to absorb all the materials, we will be posting our advice on how to respond to the consultation.

Does High Pressure Gas Main scupper Murrell Green proposals?

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Murrell Green High Pressure Gas Main

Murrell Green High Pressure Gas Main

As regular readers will know, as part of the Hart Local Plan, the local council is proposing a new settlement at Murrell Green. However, they don’t seem to have taken the high pressure gas main that runs through the site into account in their planning.

The site appraisal makes no mention of the gas main. However, the schematic above, obtained from SGN, who manage the gas mains in this area, shows a high pressure gas main, of 24″ diameter. It is described by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as a Major Accident Hazard Pipeline. It appears to cut a swathe through the proposed housing and the site of the proposed school shown in the schematic below.

Murrell Green high pressure gas main

Murrell Green development with high pressure gas pipeline

After reviewing the HSE guidelines we have come to the conclusion that major housing and a school will not be allowed to be built within approximately 100m of the pipeline. This would put a major question mark over the viability of the proposed scheme.

Murrell Green High Pressure Gas Main size 24"

Murrell Green Gas Pipeline size 24″

Full analysis below. This new information comes on top of the environmental, infrastructure and coalescence issues we raised here before.

We have had a response from Hart Council:

Head of Planning at East Hants, confirms that that the pipeline was considered alongside a number of other constraints to development. It is a known constraint which will need to be taken in to account in any master plan for the new settlement along side other constraints which have been identified in the consideration of all the sites through the SHLAA process and after. It is not however seen as any form of ‘show stopper’.

It does seem odd that planning to build a school and significant housing right on top of a 24″ high pressure gas main is not considered a ‘show-stopper’. However, we can find no mention of the pipeline in the latest assessment of rural sites covering SHL136, 167 and 186.

HSE guidelines on building near gas pipelines

The HSE has special guidelines for planning near to such installations.

First, various zones around the pipeline are established. An inner, middle and outer zone.

Consultation Distance for pipelines

We don’t know the exact size of the zones for the Murrell Green pipeline, but by way of example, the zones at Upchurch were established as:

  • Inner Zone: 9m
  • Middle Zone: 95m
  • Outer zone: 110m

According to the letter from SGN, the inner zone for the Murrell Green pipeline is 8m.

SGN Letter regarding Murrell Green High Pressure Gas Main

SGN Letter regarding Murrell Green High Pressure Gas Main

So, it is reasonable to assume the middle and outer zones will be roughly the same as those at Upchurch.

The next stage is to look at the type of development and assign a sensitivity. Housing developments over 30 units are assigned level 3.

Housing Sensitivity to gas pipelines

Housing Sensitivity

Schools, with a development size of more than 1.4Ha are assigned a sensitivity of 4.

School sensitivity zones

School sensitivity

Then a decision on whether development of various sensitivities is allowed in the various zones is made according to a matrix:

PAHDI Sensitivity and decision matrix

PAHDI Sensitivity and decision matrix

It is clear that major housing would not be allowed in the Middle Zone and a large school would not even be allowed in the Outer Zone.

Conclusion about Murrell Green High Pressure Gas Main

Our conclusion from this is that the school would not be allowed within around 100m of the pipeline, and so would have to be moved from the proposed position. It is highly likely housing would not be allowed within about 90m of the pipeline. This would create a no-go zone right through the centre of the proposed development and probably render it unviable.

Time to think again Hart Council.

 

Hartland Village Planning application submitted by St Edward homes

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Hartland Village (Pyestock) Master Plan

Hartland Village (Pyestock) Master Plan

A planning application for Hartland Village has been submitted by St Edward Homes.

Details can be found at Hart’s public access system using reference 17/00471/OUT.

We are broadly supportive of this application, but would echo a number of the objections that have been made:

  1. There should be greater provision for affordable homes. The application is for 1,500 new homes in total. Provision has been made for 195 social rented units and 105 intermediate units. Given the council has increased our housing allocation to 10,000 on the basis of needing more affordable housing, the application should not go ahead unless at least 600 units are affordable or starter homes.
  2. There should be more provision for cycling and walking to Fleet station and the town centre. It would be helpful if a new bus service was also provided, perhaps along the lines of the Hartley Wintney Community bus.
  3. More investment will be required in the local road network to make this development work. We would suggest Kennels Lane needs a significant upgrade.
  4. Specific provision needs to be made for a local health centre and dental practice.
  5. We need a definitive answer from Hampshire County Council on whether a new secondary school is required in Hart or not. If so, it should be provided on this site, which is where the bulk of new children will live.
  6. As is the case with any new development in Hart, the mainline train route to London needs to be significantly upgraded, including stations and parking.

We would urge everyone to make their voice heard in this important consultation.

Where is the draft Hart Local Plan?

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Hart Local Plan - Keep Calm and Wait until 26 April

Hart Local Plan – Keep Calm and Wait until 26 April

Regular readers maybe wondering what has happened to the Hart Local Plan. On February 9th, Hart Cabinet agreed to a spatial strategy as part of the draft Local Plan that was due to go out to consultation in March. Obviously, there have been further delays. This is what we now understand to be the position:

Hart Local Plan timetable

The draft local plan will be released 26 April for a six-week Reg 18 consultation period after a briefing session with Parish Councillors on the 25th. There will be roadshows at the main settlements. Every house in the district will receive an A5 leaflet advising them of the consultation.

The Reg 19 process will follow in about November with submission of the full plan to the Secretary of State in mid-February 2018. All responses during the Reg 18 will be made public including the names of the individuals but with no contact details.

Hart Local Plan Headlines

Hart Council have decided to build 10,185 houses up to 2032 of which around 50% have already been built or granted permission. Please note that this number is far higher than 8,022 target the recently published Strategic Housing Market Assessment and more than double the requirement generated from demographic change. The numbers are now correct as of 31 January 17 and include all office conversions which have been approved.

Housing Numbers by area

  • Fleet 200 – mostly through office redevelopment
  • Hook was 200 now 10 from office redevelopment plus another 87. However, developers may chance their arm again with Owens Farm (750), and of course around half the Murrell Green site is in Hook Parish.
  • Sun Park 320
  • Hartland Park (Pyestock) 1500. Fleet town council have apparently made the point that the site offers only 20% affordable homes and the density per hectare is up to 97 in places which is equivalent to city centre densities which is of concern to them. OUr view would be to make the most of available brownfield sites.
  • Murrell Green 1800 but with challenges. There are 4 promoters and it will be some 3 to 4 years before planning permission is approved. It includes the site for a secondary school but there won’t be enough developer contributions to pay for it. New school funding rules mean that Hampshire can’t pay for it either.  It’ll probably be an Academy at a cost of circa £36 million. So we get a site for a school, but no money.
  • Crondall 66
  • Crookham Village 100 + 64 predominantly the care village
  • Eversley 124 on two sites
  • Heckfield 86
  • Long Sutton 10
  • Odiham 119 as per NP
  • Hartley Wintney 0. It seems odd that HW’s Neighbourhood Plan will be ignored. It should be noted that Murrell Green directly abuts Hartley Wintney Parish and about half of the proposed Pale Lane (Elvetham Chase) development is in HW parish.
  • South Warnborough 34 on two sites
  • Yateley 88
  • An additional 50 via rural exceptions and a further 290 from windfall.
  • Interestingly, no mention of Winchfield, or their Neighbourhood Plan, but roughly half of Murrell Green is in Winchfield Parish.
  • Apparently, Bramshill will be very difficult to develop because of all the complications with the Grade 1 listed site.

Other news

Apparently East Hants have done such a stellar job on the Local Plan, the Planning Policy team is now back in house at Hart, reduced in size from 8 to 2.

There is a risk that developers will continue to pursue Pale Lane and take it to appeal before the Local Plan is adopted.

We await the results of the Grove Farm (Netherhouse Copse) appeal in June.

Winchfield Neighbourhood Plan adopted

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Winchfield Neighbourhood Plan adopted

Winchfield Neighbourhood Plan adopted by Hart District Council

The Winchfield Neighbourhood Plan was formally adopted by Hart District Council at their meeting last night.

Key points in the plan are shown below:

Small scale housing development

Housing is seen by the local community as best delivered by means of the following types of development:
A number of sensitive developments of up to seven houses on existing residential land, even where this may be beyond the current settlement boundaries but otherwise meet Hart DC and NPPF criteria and the policies in this Plan.

On other Brownfield sites in Winchfield, where identified, that meet Hart DC and NPPF criteria and the policies in this Plan. This would replicate the previous successful brownfield site regeneration of the former Winchfield Station Goods Yard.

One or two new unobtrusive developments of a similar size, scale and sensitive location to the existing successfully integrated Beauclerk Green (brownfield site) development, built in 1997. Such new development should not exceed the density of Beauclerk Green as it stands today.

This would seem to rule out vast new housing estates such as those proposed in the centre of Winchfield and in Murrell Green (much of which is in Winchfield Parish). However, the Hart Local Plan would take precedence over the Neighbourhood Plan.

Size and location of housing

Policy A1: Size and Location of New Developments

As a general principle new housing developments should respect the existing scale of the village and should not result in a new development of more than seven homes.

As an exception, a new housing development in excess of seven homes will be considered if on a carefully chosen site, similar in size and density to Beauclerk Green, respecting existing settlements and current local gaps which prevent coalescence with neighbouring villages.

Appropriate redevelopment of brownfield sites will be supported in preference to greenfield sites. The appropriate redevelopment of disused buildings will be supported.

Developers will be required to demonstrate that there is adequate water supply, waste water capacity and surface water drainage both on and off the site to serve the development and that it would not lead to problems for existing or new users. In some circumstances it may be necessary for developers to fund studies to ascertain whether the proposed development will lead to overloading of existing water and/or waste water infrastructure.

Drainage on the site must maintain separation of foul and surface flows.

In the event that there is a water supply, waste water capacity and surface water drainage infrastructure capacity constraint the developers will be required to identify the appropriate improvements that are required and how they will be delivered.

However, the detailed size and location of housing policy adds a further barrier to large scale development. Policies A2 and A5 provide for generous parking and low density housing.

The full Neighbourhood Plan can be downloaded below.

Winchfield Neighbourhood Plan
Winchfield Neighbourhood Plan

Winchfield Neighbourhood Plan Adopted Version

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