***Change is happening thanks to Your Support for our Protests and Petition!  3185 signatures now!  Please keep sharing!***

We took our protest to the doors of East Hampshire District Council (EHDC) on Thursday evening (23rd Sept) for their Full Council Meeting!  We were met by four Senior Members of the Council who engaged us in debate.  Here is the page with a link where you can watch the meeting. https://easthants.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=133&MId=3773

***East Hampshire District Council voted to remove 'preferred option status' from Chawton Park Farm!***

ALL sites will now have equal status and be investigated equally. Evidence will have to be 'concrete, substantial, documented, unchallenged' for any site to be included in the next version of the Local Plan (due for consultation in March/April 2022).

This is definitely a good result and a shift in the right direction.

Cllr Richard Millard (Leader) handed the protesters a letter he’d written to Rt Hon Michael Gove MP (Minister for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities) asking for clarification on the issue of calculating housing numbers, amongst other things.

***The point is that if the housing numbers are reduced EHDC may not need Chawton Park Farm as a site option***

His letter is here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oWBxt4AplmcW8Uc_mXY91XkaU6ZiceaU/view?usp=sharing

We suggest supporting Cllr Millard’s letter by writing to Damian Hinds MP, (damian.hinds.mp@parliament.uk) if you are in the East Hampshire constituency.  Here is a link to a template letter which you may wish to use.  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HrZ1HWtNrNV4edcOEhv-VFOYOL2ou8M2/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=112383628755614124042&rtpof=true&sd=true 

A copy is also at the end of this update.

Barristers Opinion - Alton Town Council sought and obtained this and it can be read here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AAVHtgoSvr1DMs5dnwwPmLlgcyyzbUMf/view?usp=sharing

In our view it contains many grounds for challenging Chawton Park Farm as a suitable site.  

We must and will continue to exert pressure on EHDC against the inclusion of Chawton Park Farm in their spatial strategy – watch this space - and we will be monitoring the Leader of EHDC,  Cllr Richard Millard's commitment to openness and transparency in EHDC's dealings with the public about their process of investigation of the suitability of the Chawton Park Farm site.

Thank you ***all*** for your continued support and involvement in this protest!

The Alton Society

thealtonsociety@gmail.com

To: Rt Hon Damian Hinds MP, (damian.hinds.mp@parliament.uk)

From:  Name, Address

Dear Mr Hinds,

I am writing as a voter in your East Hampshire constituency.

I have recently witnessed the inclusion of Chawton Park Farm in the East Hampshire District Council’s spatial strategy at their meeting on 23rd September 2021, and am very concerned about the unsustainability of a c1200 home development on this site, and the traffic, noise and pollution impact c3000 cars will have on this short stretch of already busy road linking the A31 with the A339, as well as the desecration of an ancient valley-route into Alton bounded by ancient woodlands and Sites of Interest to Nature Conservation.

You will have seen the letter dated 23rd September 2021, sent to the Rt Hon Michael Gove MP by Cllr Richard Millard, Leader of East Hampshire District Council (EHDC) and I am writing to you to ask for your help in providing the clarification and assistance he seeks from Mr Gove.

If the housing numbers could be brought down for the East Hampshire District this could mean that the large site of Chawton Park Farm is not needed.

The facts are that the Planning Policy Guidance (PPG) in noting the flaws associated with the Standard Method of calculating housing numbers specifies a scenario which exactly applies to our particular situation in East Hampshire and implies that using an ‘Alternative Method’ would be appropriate in our case:

·         Our Local Authority boundary (East Hampshire District) does not align with the Strategic Policy making authority boundary.  This means that although the South Downs National Park (SDNP) is a different Local Authority to East Hampshire District who are the ‘strategic policy making authority’ (SPMA), due to a  policy in the National Planning Policy Framework any SDNP unmet housing needs are the responsibility of our SPMA.  The problem for us, as you know, is that being  a National Park, the SDNP can refuse to build any houses if they don’t ‘conserve and enhance’ their area.  

And I further note from Cllr Millard’s letter that the following policy statements also support the case for using an ‘Alternative Method’:

·         the PPG says that use of the standard method is not mandatory

·         National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) says that ‘exceptional circumstances’ can justify  an alternative approach

It seems that it might be appropriate for EHDC to use an ‘Alternative Method’ of housing number calculation and I would ask for your help in obtaining, as a matter of urgency, the clarification sought by Cllr Millard as to what constitutes ‘exceptional circumstances’, and also guidance on how an ‘Alternative Method’ should be drafted (for example in the disaggregation of the housing numbers of the SDNP from East Hampshire District) in order to pass any tests at an examination.

You will know that the situation in East Hampshire District regarding housing need is also exacerbated by the way the affordability index feeds into the Standard Method and how it increases the number of houses that need to be built here as a direct result of the high house prices in the SDNP.   Given the government’s recent ‘pause’ in the planning reforms and its re-focus on brownfield sites I would ask you to ask consider the invidious situation in your constituency of East Hampshire, a predominantly  rural area, which has to fit 90% of the housing need into 43% of the land area and needs constantly to find more greenfield land to accommodate unrealistic housing targets and the unmet needs of the highly protected national park. 

I understand that you are working in Parliament to get together a group of MPs who have similar issues in their constituencies and I hope that you are making progress, and I support and applaud this initiative.

I would ask for your help directly in obtaining the clarification requested by Cllr Millard, and with all speed.

Yours sincerely,