Hi everyone!  Hope this finds you well. 

The petition is hovering around at 3340 so do share if you’ve not done so already!  Thank you.  We need to get to 5000 signatures for another automatic email to be sent to Cllr A Glass at East Hampshire District Council reminding her of the increasing numbers of people against this proposal.

News Highlights (see below for details)

·  Campaign Group formed

· Say No Chawton Park Farm Facebook page created (please like and share!)

· Lobbying to get the Medieval Deer Park within and around Chawton Park Farm scheduled as an Ancient Monument.

· Key points highlighting U-turn in Government's thinking after losing the Chesham and Amersham by-election re limitless uncontrolled building in South East greenfields from Boris Johnson’s & Michael Gove’s Speeches at the Conservative Party Conference in October

Say No to Chawton Park Farm Campaign Group formed – our goal is to  ‘Get Chawton Park Farm removed from the East Hampshire District Council Spatial Strategy’!  We are having regular meetings. 

Facebook Page Created - do find our dedicated Facebook page and like and share!  https://www.facebook.com/SayNoChawtonParkFarmAlton

Medieval Deer Park Pales within and around Chawton Park Farm

We recently discovered that Chawton Park Farm and its woodlands contain a Medieval Deer Park, with ‘palings’  (banks and ditches) as can be seen on the attached photo of the Ordnance Survey Map.  A photo of the deer 'paling' can be seen here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JbcPnd5q4MA3t6R7K9HrdIBdXZqz89cM/view?usp=sharing   

One short stretch of the palings is next to the NCN224 cycle path which goes through Chawton Park Farm. 

We hope that Alton Town Council will apply to Historic England to get it scheduled as an Ancient Monument.  If you’d like to email your Alton councillor to encourage them to vote in favour of a listing/lobby for a listing then here is the link to their names: http://www.alton.gov.uk/Town_Council_6312.aspx

A scheduling would be a major constraint to building on Chawton Park Farm for the following reasons:

The Barrister’s opinion obtained in September 2021 by Alton Town Council stated:

“Scheduling would of course have a significant impact on the potential to allocate the land, depending upon its extent and the setting.”

The County Archaeologist said in 2018 that the Deer Park is regarded as being of “national importance although it is not a scheduled monument” and “It represents a significant constraint to the full development of the whole allocation despite the size of the allocation.”

If it was within 100m of a Scheduled Ancient Monument this would give it another red flag to add to the 4 it already has, thereby making it equal 6th place with Whitehill & Bordon, rather than currently 5th.  The original 2019 Sites Assessment said Chawton Park Farm is “beyond 500m from the nearest Scheduled Ancient Monument (Medstead Camp, 2.7km)”.  This gave it a green flag for that 'constraint' in the assessment process.  It currently ranks below Land West of Lymington Bottom Road; South Medstead, Winchester Road Four Marks, Four Marks South and Neatham Down, all of which have less than 4 red flags, and would continue to do so.

Lastly of course it would be something to celebrate for its historic interest, and background to the evolution of the area in which Alton resides.

Here's a link to a Chawton House' piece (look at page 2) about the deer parks locally: https://chawtonhouse.org/.../2018/12/TFSSPRING1998pdf.pdf

Key points from Boris Johnson’s & Michael Gove’s Speeches  at Conservative Party Conference in October

We need to continually remind EHDC what Johnson & Gove said that homes should be built on brownfield sites first; that levelling up will mean taking the pressure off parts of the overheating South East and that ministers are looking to boost house building in the North of England (see below).  There is a growing group of MPs who support only building on brownfield sites until they are all built on. 

We need to lobby Damian Hinds MP to get their words made into law ASAP damian.hinds.mp@parliament.uk

Boris Johnson’s speech

·         Spoke out against the building of new homes on "green fields" and in England's "overheating" south east and instead indicated a preference for "beautiful homes on brownfield sites". 

·         Said that, looking at Google Maps, it was clear "how much room there is to build the homes that young families need in this country". He continued that this would not be "on green fields", "not just jammed in the south east" but "beautiful homes on brownfield sites in places where homes make sense".

·         Spoke of residents' [in Buckinghamshire] "constant anxiety that your immemorial view of chalk downland is going to be desecrated by ugly new homes".

·         He added: "that is why levelling up works for the whole country and is the right and responsible policy, because it helps to take the pressure off parts of the overheating South East".

Michael Gove’s speech

·         Planning reform will not be enough to deliver the homes the country needs unless it is allied with government investment in regeneration.

·         Suggested that ministers are looking to boost house-building in the north of England. 

·          Implied that the government will now look to focus development on parts of the country outside of London and the South East, such as Yorkshire and the North East, where he said the financial challenges of "generation rent" were even greater. "We need more homes, we want people to own their own homes," he said, adding "But [...] if you really, really want to help those who are currently in rented accommodation and want to own their own homes, then the focus shouldn't necessarily be geographically where it has been beforehand." 

·         Intends to invest in "urban regeneration" by building homes on "neglected brown-field sites", while "allowing communities to take back control of their futures". 

·         Levelling up (the programme to rebalance the economy away from London and the wider south east and improve outcomes in other parts of the country) - he said:

"In my department, that will mean investing in urban regeneration, with new homes on neglected brownfield sites [and] a better deal for those in social housing."

***Thanks for reading and for your continued support!***