ARTICLE FOR JUNE PARISH NEWSLETTER
A full house of over 200 residents of the Old Basing and Lychpit Parish attended a Public Meeting in the Old Basing Village Hall on Saturday 15th April. Sponsored and managed by OBLEC, which is a group of residents established by the Parish Council to combat totally inappropriate housing development plans around the parish, attendees learned about current active development threats.
Housing development plans for our area are managed and decided upon by the Basingstoke and Dean Borough Council through a process that is approved and overseen by the government. But local residents are entitled to a say when it is their area that is affected, and their views have to be registered in accordance with a detailed bureaucratic process otherwise they are largely ignored. This Public Meeting aimed to inform everyone of both the threat, and the process by which the threat could be offset. At the outset the Chairman of the Parish Council, Peter Bloyce, explained that the Borough had permitted massive housing developments, well in excess of that required by government, over many years. There was no need to continue this over-delivery, and Old Basing and Lychpit had delivered its fair share in that time.
The existing threat is a large potential housing development in three areas that could lead to as many as 2,150 new homes being built on the east side of the village near Pyott’s Hill in the area of Lodge Farm and the Sewage Works (areas know to the planners as OLD001 and OLD002) and around Hodd’s Farm, north of the A30 near Conkers Garden Centre (termed OLD007).
At the meeting, members of the OBLEC committee led by Alan Renwick explained where these three sites were, and the difficulties that development of each would bring to the Parish through the increase in population size that would roughly double the amount of people. Several thousand more cars would have an overwhelming impact on the narrow ancient roads and pinch points; the existing schools would be crowded out with new children, and the existing medical and community facilities would be totally unable to cope, even more than now.
Gillian Moore told the meeting that the impact of such development on the River Loddon, its flood plain and river catchment could be disastrous. The Loddon is a very environmentally-sensitive chalk stream which these days provides increasingly rare value to the nature it supports. Residents of the whole area, not just those within the Parish, enjoy the enormous benefits that the local countryside offers for walkers and public recreation, as seen particularly during the pandemic lockdowns.
Faced with this threat, and the need to address the planning process professionally, the Parish Council had commissioned planning consultants West Waddy Archadia (WWA) to advise on how to respond to a new local plan, and Mr Steve Pickles took up the second half of the meeting in explaining the process, noting that the government is in the process of changing planning policies, due to take effect later this year.
In brief, the Parish is updating the Neighbourhood Plan. The Borough’s Draft Local Plan (up to 2038) will be published for a 6-week period of consultation (called Regulation 18) in the autumn of 2023. And then its successor in the draft process, Regulation 19, due about a year later will give a further opportunity to oppose inappropriate allocations of greenfield lands. It would be important to obtain evidence-based information on environment matters, and important too to suggest any alternative sites.
During a lively Questions and Answers, many residents asked how they could help and others expressed firm views on the motives of developers and landowners. Some made the valuable point that new homes were needed for those who required them, but it was important that development sites should be in places where they were best suited. Not on greenfields, and not where the environment would be forever adversely impacted.
In closing Alan Renwick thanked everyone for attending, and all those who had helped in the meeting’s delivery. OBLEC would let the Parish know as these development plans progressed, and would seek people to help out as specific needs arose. Its website oblec.org.uk was ‘live’ now and would be kept up-to-date.
Nick Harris
(Spokesman for OBLEC)
27 Apr 2023