Draft South East Plan - Hampshire County Council's Comments

Hampshire County Council made representations on the draft South East Plan in June 2006. Our over-riding aim was to protect the character of Hampshire and the quality of life of its residents. A summary of those representations is below. View the full submission.

We have asked for changes to be made to the following policies and have objected to them as they stand...

Policy CC1 Sustainable Development

We have doubts about the housing numbers proposed and are asking that the regular review of the Plan test whether housebuilding rates are sustainable.

Policy CC5 Infrastructure

Local Planning Authorities must be able to check that progress is being made on infrastructure provision so that they can decide whether development should go ahead. We would like to see the funding for infrastructure being controlled more locally than is being proposed.

Policies NRM1, and EN3 Water and Energy Efficiencies

We would like to see the high standards proposed for South Hampshire extended to cover the whole Region.

Policies W3 and W4 Waste

We object to the proposal that Hampshire should be required to landfill some of London's waste.

Policy SH12 Housing - South Hampshire

We are unconvinced that the level of economic growth on which the draft Plan bases its housing provision in South Hampshire can be achieved. We want some of the housing to be held in reserve and released only if this level of growth actually occurs.

Policy WCBV3 Housing in Basingstoke

There is considerable uncertainty over whether sewage treatment facilities in Basingstoke can cope with the amount of housing proposed, without having a damaging effect on the river system. Until this issue can be resolved by studies currently underway we want to see a cautious approach to housebuilding after 2016.

There are parts of the draft Plan which we support. Some policies we think could be strengthened with minor alterations...

We would like the definition of Market Towns (Policy BE3) widened so that it follows other Government guidance and would then include towns such as Romsey.

We support the proposal for a Transport delivery agency for South Hampshire (Policy SH11) to provide a locally managed approach to Integrated Transport but want provision extended to provide a locally managed approach to Integrated Transport but want provision extended to cover the whole county.

We have suggested some additions to the policy on Sub Regional Gaps (SH3) and we welcome the recognition that maintaining the separate identity of settlements is important.

The Plan includes a policy which seeks to protect the Character of the Environment and Quality of Life (CC12). We welcome this, but would like to see it strengthened by requiring District councils to undertake landscape and townscape character assessments.

We think the policy on Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (Policy C2) needs rewording to avoid downgrading the level of protection they have from development.

In general we support the policies on Affordable Housing (Policy H4) and Housing Density and Design (Policy H5). We believe that these policies should be strengthened by providing for guidance documents at a local level and recognising the need for more local flexibility on densities.

We strongly support the `Plan, Monitor, Manage' approach in the main Housing Policy (H1) and we have welcomed wholeheartedly the Policy on Resource Use (CC3).

To sum up, we believe that the draft plan has been improved, but that there is some way to go, and we are still `Holding out for Hampshire' to ensure that our communities interest are understood and recognised in the final plan.