Finally after two years of gathering signatures the petition has been 'handed over' in certificate form (without any names) to the Chairman of East Hants District Council at the Full Council meeting on Thursday 28th Sept! Fantastic. It's the culmination of two years of campaigning and the dedication of our Campaign Group and The Alton Society.
Here's a link to the live video of the speech which is about 6-7 mins long. https://tinyurl.com/saynospeech
There is a copy of the text at the end of this update.
And here's a link to the Background Paper that was sent out to all Councillors and includes all our articles that were in the Alton Herald in chronological order: https://tinyurl.com/councillordocument
Despite the rain we managed to get a photo! And thank you to our supporters who turned out to support this event.
We'd like to thank EHDC for their guidance on how to make this happen. It all went very smoothly.
Next steps: Jan 2024
We now await the Local Plan Consultation (Reg 18 part 2) on Sites, which is expected towards the end of January 2024 - and we hope that Chawton Park Farm will not be in it!
Reminder of our email, and Facebook page in case anyone would like to be in touch:
saynotochawtonparkfarm@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/saynochawtonparkfarmalton
Thank you for your continued support and sharing of this petition! It would be good to get to 5500 wouldn't it - currently at 5369.
Text of Speech
Good evening councillors and thank you for allowing me to address the meeting. I will be speaking for about 5 minutes.
My name is Carol Palmer I am the Chair of the Say No to Chawton Park Farm Campaign Group, and in that capacity I am here to present to you our petition against building on Chawton Park Farm. The reason for presenting this now is that early next year we are expecting Part 2 of the Reg 18 Local Plan Consultation. This will identify sites for housing in East Hampshire, outside the National Park, up to 2040.
Our petition has been running since August 2021 and to date has attracted 5369 signatures. Signatures are still being added. This represents nearly 30% of the total population of Alton. A significant number as I’m sure you will agree. In fact last week marked the 2nd anniversary of our protest at Penns Place. If you haven’t yet seen the proposed site, I would urge you to visit.
Before this meeting I sent out a background document to all of you to explain why this campaign exists via links and articles and a graph showing the issues raised by petitioners.
Their prime concerns were a) Destruction of Landscape (and ensuing impact of its loss on mental health); b) loss of biodiversity and farmland; c) the wrong location for development - too far from facilities; d) the fact that Altonians have already accepted a considerable amount of development around their town; e) the worsening of traffic issues and last but not least, the inability of infrastructure to cope.
As well as those, here is a brief summary of the 6 main issues mitigating against development on Chawton Park Farm:
Public response
· In response to the Council‘s Large Site Development Consultation in 2019, the public ranked it as the least preferred option while EHDC’s Site Assessments Background Paper at the same time, had already given it four red flags.
· The public response to the Reg 18 Part 1 Consultation earlier this year, was that a concentration of housing in a new settlement (such as Chawton Park Farm) was ‘by far the most commonly ranked least preferred’ option.
· And of course you have our petition numbers to show you what people think, as well.
Traffic issues
We know that EHDC has written evidence of the traffic issues associated with this area of Alton and which would make it a living hell for local residents if Chawton Park Farm were to be built. The 2015 Alton Transport Strategy predicted that on completion of the Ackender Hill development on Chawton Park Road, queues of about 34 vehicles would appear at morning peak hour, at the Chawton Park Road/Whitedown Lane junction.
The strategy also predicted that the junction would operate at 96 per cent capacity – defined as being well above its practical limit and that is before any development at Chawton Park Farm! We understand that Hampshire County Council expressed concern over any signalisation of this junction and that they are currently ‘monitoring’ the situation.
1200 houses at the farm would bring at least an extra 2000 cars to this area.
Access
Access to the site is constrained by the combined hazards of, firstly the narrow width of Northfield Lane & Chawton Park Road; secondly an almost single lane Victorian railway arch and thirdly a tight 90 degree bend, directly opposite the entrance to Chawton Park Farm.
Sustainability
This is not a Sustainable Site. The eastern boundary is nearly 1 and half miles from the centre of Alton and at least a 30 minute walk, with the western boundary being roughly another mile away from the town centre. This is considerably outside the latest thinking on 15 to 20 minute neighbourhoods and completely inconsistent with this Council’s Climate Emergency declaration of 2019.
Development of Chawton Park Farm will inevitably impact its nearby SINCs, ancient woodland, ‘valued’ landscape and the Medieval Deer Park Pales
The site is surrounded by woodland some of which is designated ’ancient woodland’ and Sites of Importance to Nature Conservation. A large busy development would negatively impact the wildlife in those woodlands and the woods themselves by incursion of residents, domestic animals, and light pollution. The Council for the Protection of Rural England has characterised this site as a ‘valued’ landscape within the definition of the National Planning Policy Framework paragraph 170(a). Finally, the site contains, and parts are in close proximity to, medieval Deer Park Pales which have been described by the County Archaeologist as a ‘monument of national importance’.
We would respectfully remind this meeting of the public exchange between Cllr Millard and Mr Jenkins in July last year regarding any granting of planning permission for Chawton Park Farm where Mr Jenkins said when questioned by Cllr Millard that “as your lead planning professional, at this point in time I would be recommending refusal”, and in response Cllr Millard said “my immediate response to that is “good”. It is the wrong location, it is the wrong size, it is the wrong infrastructure provision.”
This perfectly sums up how we feel.
In conclusion I would like to thank you for listening, and to ask on behalf of our Campaign that this petition be incorporated into the evidence base for the Local Plan, and that the Council and its Planning Officers listen to their constituents’ concerns and exclude Chawton Park Farm from the Local Plan Consultation on site options, next year.
Thank you