The draft of the South East Plan is now online at http://www.southeast-ra.gov.uk/southeastplan/plan/view_plan.html, along with a questionnaire for us to state our views. Don't rush too fast - even the 'executive summary' is nearly half a megabyte of Acrobat (.pdf) file - twelve pages! The whole Plan would take a ream of paper if you downloaded and printed it. Sceptics might get the impression that the whole thing is designed to make sure only a very few people read it - see my news item "Daft invitation - and loaded questions". The deadline for your responses (see my recommendations below) is 15th April.
These are the key issues:
- How many houses? The Government (and Basingstoke & Deane's Lib-Lab leadership) wants to dramatically increase the rate of house building in our area. I strongly disagree - this is not the way to solve the problem of affordable homes.
- What kind of growth? We all want prosperity and good job opportunities for ourselves and our children. But if we go for the kind of growth envisaged in the South East Plan (and warmly endorsed by the Borough's Lib-Lab leadership) its clear from the Environment Agency that we will run into real trouble in areas such as water supply, traffic congestion, sewage and pollution. The plan wants to cater for 900,000 extra people in the South East!
- Who decides? The Government talks of a greater say for local people with more powers for parish councils. But in their latest planning legislation they left out village plans and village design statements, which will now be much more complicated and difficult to create and implement.
The SE Plan calls for up to a 69% increase over current house building levels!
Every resident has an interest in this Government-driven agenda. I urge you to write to the South East Regional Assembly (secretariat@southeast-ra.gov.uk) with a copy to me (cllr.h.mitchell@basingstoke.gov.uk), telling them we want:
- No more than the same rate of housing growth as at present (27,500 new houses a year);
- Emphasis on economic growth that doesn't lead to many thousands of extra people having to leave their homes in the North and move to the South East;
- Real power put back into the hands of local planning authorities and local parish councils;
- Investment in the local infrastructure committed before we accept any new major developments, not afterwards.
I'm hoping that parish councils and others in Highclere and Bourne ward will want to organise local meetings where the key aspects of the Plan can be presented and discussed. Some of my general views are here under "Prosperity, growth and housing". Meantime I'll be delighted to answer your questions - just email me or use the 'Contact Me' form.