Protect Basingstoke’s Chalk Streams and Natural Green Spaces – Press the Council to strengthen the Local Plan before sensitive habitats are lost

Basingstoke is deciding where 17,000 new homes will be built over the next 15 years. We support new housing — but not at the cost of our natural environment.

Our borough is home to globally rare chalk streams and rich networks of woodland, hedgerows, and green spaces where wildlife thrives. Some of the areas proposed for development in the draft Local Plan could put these precious habitats at risk, by placing growth in locations where rivers are already under pressure and important wildlife corridors could be broken.

We are calling on Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council to strengthen the Local Plan by:

1. Putting homes in the right places
Reassess the highest-risk development sites and use up-to-date environmental evidence — including biodiversity, river health, chalk-stream sensitivity, and flood risk — to guide where growth should go.

2. Protecting and restoring wildlife corridors
Fully integrate Hampshire’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) into the Plan and secure a network of connected habitats across the borough.

Please sign and share this petition — and, if you live locally, please also send a consultation response using Natural Basingstoke’s simple template letter.

To see the full evidence behind this petition visit:
https://naturalbasingstoke.org.uk/local-plan-campaign/#

Together, we can help ensure Basingstoke builds the homes it needs without losing the nature that makes this place special.