Reid About Basingstoke

WELCOME!

This is a blog from County Councillor Stephen Reid, intended to give you the very best in comment about Basingstoke and the issues we face as residents. All views are my own, and I hope you find them useful.

Please note that, though I reference this blog on social media, I resist entering into debate on those platforms. They are not private, it is too easy to miss something, and there are trolls around ready to impose themselves on other peoples’ conversations. If you have a comment, I would be delighted to hear from you on sreid17786@aol.com

Promoted by Stephen Reid, 34 Centurion Way, Hatch Warren, Basingstoke RG22 4TJ

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THE FIGURES SHOW THAT HOUSEBUILDING IN BASINGSTOKE MUST SLOW DOWN

5th April 2024

I have lived in Basingstoke all my life. I watched it grow from a sleepy market town into the largest town in Hampshire. That massive, but artificial, growth was started by the ‘London Overspill’ agreement in the sixties and seventies, and it has never really settled back to a ‘natural’ pace of expansion.

One major problem with the rapid expansion was that the infrastructure didn’t keep pace. Huge estates were built with basic amenities: shops, a pub and a church, but the entertainment side of things was not sufficiently catered for. That’s why, when I became Leader of the Borough Council in the eighties and nineties, I set about trying to right that wrong.

The solution was a massive investment in leisure and entertainment, including constructing the Leisure Park, the modernisation of the Haymarket Theatre and the building of the Anvil. These facilities, coupled with investments in community halls helped to redress the balance, and for a while we were one of the better provided towns in terms of ‘things to do’.

But the high rate of growth has continued to this day. I offer two sets of numbers to illustrate:

• Between the last two censuses, the Borough’s population expanded by 10.4%, compared to 7.5% for the South East and 6.6% for England.
• At the same time, the number of homes here expanded by 11.5%, compared to 9% for the South East and 8.5% for England.

Some people try to deny that Basingstoke is growing faster than the region, but to do so they have to ignore the numbers to construct a spurious political argument.

The facts are the facts. Basingstoke continues to grow at an artificially high rate, and we are building houses here for people to buy from other parts of the country, easing their housing pressures but increasing ours.

And the impact is the same as it was back in the eighties. Our infrastructure has fallen behind and, most especially now, we need a new hospital.

The Government’s planning policy is pretty prescriptive, but it does now allow Councils to argue for ‘exceptional circumstances’. In my opinion, our six decades of artificially high growth qualify us to make that argument. Building 850 homes or more each year, is too many.

Some people say that the argument will fail. I say it is worth trying.

Not to try guarantees failure – and that is irrefutable.

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OBJECTION TO THE PLANNING APPLICATION FOR MCDONALDS

13th March 2024

I have lodged the following objection to the proposed siting of a McDonalds on the Hatch Warren Retail Park.

I am County Councillor for Basingstoke South West in which this location is situated.

I object to the application on the following grounds:

1. The opening hours of the store are not defined. I arranged a few months ago for the gates to the Hatch Warren Retail Park to be locked at 1030pm to protect the car park from mis-use by car meets, that were occurring there regularly and causing distress to residents across the estate. The nature of the takeaway business would compromise this essential security unless opening hours are severely restricted.

2. The site is too close to housing. I fear odour, noise and light pollution caused by the nature of the business and potential extended opening hours.

3. Local residents fear noise and ASB intrusion. The application is silent about any steps that might be taken to mitigate these fears.

4. No details are given about traffic management. The site has the potential of generating traffic through the Hatch Warren estate rather than on the A30.

5. I fear that the business could impact adversely on the Beggarwood Park area, in terms of ASB and litter.

Thank you for considering these items.

The photo illustrates how badly the car park was being misused before the improved security was implemented.

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PLANNING FOR 18,000 NEW HOMES IN THE WEST OF BASINGSTOKE IS FLAWED

29th February 2024

I spoke at last week’s Hampshire County Council meeting about the local transport plans for Basingstoke. My contribution can be viewed at

Here is a summary.

Basingstoke and Deane is planning to build 18,000 homes to the west of Basingstoke. The traffic from those homes will be expected to use the existing roads: the A30, the B3400 Worting Road and the A339 Kingsclere Road.

18,000 homes. No new road. No firm plan for another crossing of the railway line. No western by-pass.

In this context, and as the only option left, the County officers are falling back on what they call ‘modal shift’. Residents will be encouraged to stop using cars and start using buses instead.

The problem is that every time this has been tried here in the past, it has failed. It goes against human nature. People like their cars. They want to use their cars. And as often as not, they need to use their cars because public transport doesn’t work for them – it doesn’t go where they want, or it takes too long to get there, or it isn’t frequent enough.

The transport plan talks about a Mass Rapid Transit link, based on buses. But where will the MRT go? It will have to share the existing, already congested, roads where it will be neither Mass, nor Rapid.

To address this, the planners will propose bus priority measures: bus lanes and contraflows that further restrict the capacity of the roads for car users. In my opinion this will not work.

The policy changes that Basingstoke needs are clear and different:

• The Borough Council needs to slow down the planned growth, so that 18,000 extra homes ceases to be the target.
• The Borough Council needs to change the policy that puts all the growth onto the west of the town. Spread them out fairly.
• The County Council needs to plan for a western by-pass or link road, and another crossing of the railway and start sourcing the money now.

18,000 homes cannot be supported on the cheap. They require infrastructure investment. In its current form, the evolving local plan simply will not work.

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“I WOULD NOT HAVE SUPPORTED A MOVE TO PUBLIC CONSULTATION IF WE WERE NOT CONFIDENT THAT FUNDING WOULD BE AVAILABLE FOR YOUR SCHEME.”

11th February 2024

NHS England has written to the Chief Executive of the local Hospital Trust confirming that £700m to £900m is available to fund the proposed new hospital in Basingstoke.

Nothing has changed since the new Hospital Programme announcement in May 2023.

The national programme is already funding the development of the scheme and the public consultation.

The public consultation would not have been allowed to start if the money had not been in place.

Once the consultation is concluded and a final decision is made on site location, and the clinical model, the Hospital Trust will submit a series of business cases to the Treasury which will prove value for money. This is entirely normal process for major public investments.

This information was contained in a letter from Natalie Forrest, the Senior Responsible Owner on the New Hospital Programme. The letter is reproduced here.

This letter is a definitive statement from the NHS.

I accept what the NHS is saying and and I support the new hospital scheme.

The most important thing now is for as many people as possible to take part in the consultation, to ensure that Basingstoke’s voice is heard.

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NEW HOSPITAL FUNDING IS IN PLACE

8th February 2023

Some people have been suggesting that the funding for the new hospital in Basingstoke is not in place – but it is. There appears to be confusion as to how the funding system works.

I have worked on major government projects and can confirm from experience that there are many stages of approval to go through. This simplified summary may help.

First of all, funding has to be obtained. Thanks to the work of the Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, supported by Maria Miller’s lobbying, that has been achieved and £700-£900 million has been ringfenced for Basingstoke’s and Winchester’s new hospital facilities. That was confirmed in writing.

Knowing that the funding is available enables the Trust to move to the next stage, which is a public consultation on the location of the new hospital and the services it will provide. That consultation has started. Please take part, by visiting the Hampshire Together website.

When the consultation has been completed, the local NHS and NHS England will decide on the most appropriate site, secure it and design the hospital. Those decisions will obviously affect the costs of the project.

When it knows the detailed costs, the Trust will prepare a final business case for the project and ask for the ring-fenced funding to be released. That business case will be closely scrutinised.

Some people apparently do not understand the difference between securing the funding and getting it released. Each step in the process is carefully monitored and checked.

The people who have been casting doubt on the funding are doing Basingstoke a disservice. In Winchester, there is a campaign to change the proposals. They have no doubt that the funding is available! And importantly, the Hospital Trust – our local NHS itself – has reaffirmed that it received a letter in May 2023 confirming that it is part of the government’s New Hospital Programme with a committed investment of between £700 million and £900 million.

If people want to doubt what I say, that’s up to them. But when they question the accuracy of what they are being told by our local NHS, which is working so hard to deliver the new Hospital we so badly need, then they are overstepping the mark – and letting down the people of Basingstoke in the process.

And before the usual doubters pile in to question what I have said here, let me say that this posting is based on a letter I sent to the local paper. which I had fact-checked by the Hospital Trust and the NHS Integrated Care Board before I sent it. This article is the true position.

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PREPARING FOR SNOW AND ICE ON THE ROADS

8th January 2024

With a cold snap approaching, I thought it might be useful to post some information about maintenance arrangements for the roads.

When road surface temperatures drop below freezing, Hampshire’s Highways teams and their 42-strong gritter fleet are tasked with keeping the County’s main routes clear, as well as responding to surface water flooding and fallen debris on the roads as a result of heavy rainfall and high winds. We’ve had a lot of that lately!

As the highway authority, Hampshire County Council is responsible for maintaining 5,200 miles of publicly maintainable surfaced roads during the winter period (but not motorways and certain major A-roads, historically referred to as trunk roads – these are maintained by National Highways).

The roads that Hampshire looks after are allocated to one of three groupings:

Priority 1 routes are treated in advance of forecast ice, frost or snow. They cover approximately 1,800 miles which is about 35% of the road network. Priority One routes carry the majority of all traffic. These include all the ‘A’ class roads that the County Council is responsible for, other heavily used roads, access roads to emergency services establishments, major bus routes, large schools and sites classed as locally critical infrastructure by the County Council’s Emergency Planning team.

Priority 2 and Community Routes include single routes to villages, schools, and other emergency and public services not already treated and may be treated when there is prolonged and persistent frost, ice or snow which is expected to continue. This occurs only after clearing Priority One routes and when there is enough time to treat them without affecting any of the Priority One routes.

Priority Three routes include all other roads. These may be treated following significant snowfall but only once Priority One, Priority Two and Community Routes have been cleared.

As of now, the salt barns are fully stocked, with around 15,500 tonnes of salt, and over the summer months the team has refilled the network of blue and yellow community salt bins, making salt freely available for everyone to spread on local roads and pavements. Please let me know if there is one near you that has been missed.

When it comes to road salt, a little goes a long way – just one tablespoon treats up to a square metre of road or pavement. If you’re able to, salting your local roads when it’s forecast to be icy is a big help to your community, reducing the risk of incident and injury, especially for those who are less mobile.

You can find advice about salting local roads, the best way to clear snow and ice from pavements and how to report a road problem via these links.

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PLEASE TAKE PART IN THE HOSPITAL PUBLIC CONSULTATION

13th December 2023

I urge Basingstoke residents to take part in the public consultation about how between £700 million and £900 million should be invested in hospital services to transform healthcare for communities across Hampshire.

Patients, local people, and NHS staff are now being encouraged to get involved and give their views on the proposals which include:

• building a brand new hospital on the current Basingstoke hospital site or near Junction 7 of the M3 for specialist and emergency care, such as strokes, heart attacks, trauma (treating life and limb threatening injuries), emergency surgery, obstetrician-led maternity care, and separate children’s emergency department.
• significantly investing in the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester which would focus on planned operations and procedures, and provide a 24/7 doctor-led urgent treatment centre that would see and treat around 60% of the patients who currently go to Winchester Accident and Emergency (A&E), same day emergency care services, and midwife led maternity services
• continuing to deliver day-to-day hospital services such as outpatients, diagnostics, and therapy services from the main hospital sites

With these proposals, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve hospital facilities and hospital services across our part of Hampshire for decades to come.

The NHS wants to know what people think about the plans to build a new hospital, invest in Winchester hospital, and its proposals regarding where services are provided from in the future. The proposals have been designed by clinicians, talking with patients and the public, and are based on clinical evidence and best practice. At their heart is the need to deliver safe, sustainable, high-quality services for the future, with sufficient specialist staff to run services well.  

The consultation document, which provides more detail on the proposals, is now available at www.hampshiretogether.nhs.uk or call 0300 561 0905.

As a past Governor of the Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust, I am aware of how much work has taken place behind the scenes to draw up these plans and also to secure the funding. Because so much was happening without publicity, it enabled people who knew nothing of what was going on to spread the cynical, and incorrect, suggestion that the new hospital would never happen. This consultation shows that they were wrong, and it’s an opportunity for us, collectively, to show that Basingstoke takes a positive view and supports the new hospital.

The consultation is open until midnight on Sunday 17 March 2024.

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UPDATES ON PROPOSED NEW HOSPITAL

20th November 2023

I attended a meeting about the proposed new hospital last week and it revealed some interesting updates. The first was that the public consultation is planned to start before Christmas. It is scheduled to take 12 weeks, though I pointed out that with the festive holidays coming up, it would be sensible to extend the period. The consultation will help the Hospital Trust decide whether to go for the site near Junction 7 or to redevelop the existing hospital.

The second update was that the £800 million ring-fenced cash from the Treasury will pay for the new hospital and important upgrades at Winchester. One of my fears about the proposals has been that Winchester residents will object because they see it putting their own hospital at risk. If they can see that the opposite is the truth, and they will be getting part of the investment as well, it may put their reservations to rest.

The third piece of information was that the new hospital will be designed to allow every patient an individual room with en-suite bathroom, rather than putting them into shared wards. The logic is that people in their own rooms sleep better, eat better and therefore get better more quickly.

The public transport issues will need to be addressed. People worry that there is no bus service to the preferred hospital site at Junction 7. There wasn’t one to the existing site before it was built, either! I would like to see a public transport ‘hub’ built into the plans.

Whichever site is used, Basingstoke needs its new hospital. The point was made that our population has grown very fast, which increases demand, and it is ageing, which increases demand still further.

I pick up a lot of cynicism about the new hospital, but no-one at the meeting could be in any doubt that the local hospital managers are determined to make it happen.

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MINI ROUNDABOUT CONCERN

10th October 2023

I have written to the Officers at Hampshire to express concerns about the Heather Way / Kempshott Lane mini roundabout. It gives rise to confusion and near misses due to its layout. where Kempshott Lane looks to be ‘straight on’ and Heather Way looks to be ‘the junction road’. I see drivers not obeying roundabout etiquette and have been contacted by a resident who says the same.

I have asked whether anything can be done – perhaps improved signage (give way to traffic from the right).

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LOCAL PLAN ‘SLOWDOWN’ IS NOT A SLOWDOWN AT ALL

7th September 2023

The new administration at Basingstoke and Deane is breaking a promise given by its independent Councillors, to slow down the growth of the Borough.

At the moment, Basingstoke and Deane is expected to build 850 homes a year – the ‘build rate’. The independent Councillors promised to use 2021 census data to produce an answer that would lower the build rate. But they are not lowering it.

Instead, they are suggesting building fewer homes in the first five years of the next plan but to accelerate the build rate after that to make up for the lost numbers. The number of homes they would build is exactly the same, in total, as the current target. Their ‘slowdown’ is simply playing with the numbers.

Sadly, this could make the over-development problem worse. If they slow down the number of homes built in the first five years and compensate for that in the last five years, we will enter the discussions on the next local plan with a faster target build rate than we have now. Government and civil servants will expect Basingstoke to carry on at that higher rate.

So don’t be fooled by talk of phasing and slowdowns. The target number of homes is not coming down. That is what matters.

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M3 MOTORWAY SERVICES

30th August 2023

The proposal to put a motorway service area (MSA) at Junction 6 of the M3 is attracting opposition. People are rightly commenting about the environmental impacts and the extra load it will put on the sewage works at Chineham.

I remind everyone that there were TWO potential applications, and we need to frame the debate with both in mind. The one that has been resurrected is at Junction 6. The other was a site nearer to Junction 7, opposite Hatch Warren.

The ‘Junction 7’ application has gone quiet, but I feel cautious. If the Moto one at Junction 6 can be pursued again, then so too could the one opposite Hatch Warren.

Objectors are putting a lot of weight on the argument that another MSA is not needed. I am not sure that this logic will sustain. People will say it is significant that two companies both believe the demand is there and reckon that they could make money from running an MSA near Basingstoke.

So, I predict that it is the environmental issues that will count the most and in talking about them we need to speak about both potential sites. Both would develop green fields south of the motorway. Both would put extra load onto the sewage works. Both could generate extra traffic – but in the case of Hatch Warren and Beggarwood, on local residential roads. The green fields opposite Hatch Warren are ever bit as valuable as the green fields near Junction 6.

Not only that, the design of the second potential site (when I last saw it) included looping access ramps across the motorway that would impact on homes in Hatch Warren and cause the loss of part of the Brighton Hill playing fields.

Residents of the west of Basingstoke should take a measured view on this matter. On the face of it, the current application does not impact the Hatch Warren and Brighton Hill areas. But it might.

The outcome of the Junction 6 application could be important to Hatch Warren and Beggarwood, and is one for residents to watch carefully. Campaigners, politicians and commentators who fail to mention both sites when discussing this matter will do a disservice to the residents of Hatch Warren, Beggarwood and Brighton Hill.

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KEMPSHOTT VILLAGE HALL IS A MAJOR ASSET

4the June 2023

I took the opportunity to visit today’s open day organised by Kempshott Village Hall to showcase the clubs and societies that operate from the venue.

I was particularly pleased to meet the organiser behind a new society dedicated to helping people suffering from dementia. It aims to stimulate old memories by use of objects and memorabilia.

The local Horticultural Society stand had tomato lants on offer and the Kempshott Women’s Institute had copies of their latest programme.

I was pleased to see how smart the new stage curtains look in the Hall, having authorised some of my County Councillor devolved budget last year to help fund them.

Kempshott Village Hall is a major asset to the community and the people who help to run its many activities make life better for thousands of people.

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SAFETY CONCERNS ON BEGGARWOOD LANE NEAR THE HOLLY BLUE

2nd June 2023

I have written to the County Officer responsible for the Basingstoke area about a safety concern on Beggarwood Lane.

In recent years changes have been made to Beggarwood Lane near to its junction with the A30. The most notable of these is that a ‘build out’ traffic calming measure was removed, and a significant access was built to service the Holly Blue public house and housing facilities for the elderly, with a Neurocare facility currently under construction and children’s nursery expected to follow.

There are reports that the road is being used irresponsibly, with speeding cars coming too fast off the A30 past the important entrance to the above facilities. There is also some evidence of the road being misused during ‘car meets’. Also, there is an increasing (and perfectly reasonable) trend for people to park in the Holly Blue and cross the road to walk in Beggarwood Park before returning for refreshments. So, traffic and pedestrian crossings are up, whilst traffic calming is down.

The safety question I have asked is ‘can anything be done to slow traffic in the area and prevent accidents?’ The risk is that vehicles travelling too fast could hit pedestrians on the sweeping bend, or a vehicle entering or exiting the Island Site.

Elsewhere in the area we have ‘pinch points’ on the safer routes to school that narrow the roads and require greater attention from motorists, as well as making it safer to cross. Alternatively, might central bollards help? Or even a formal crossing of some sort if traffic volumes justify this? The danger area is the ‘Holly Blue to Co-op’ stretch of road, and that includes the junction to the new homes in the Blue Hut Way area.

I have offered to meet the officer on site if he would find that useful.

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NEW HOSPITAL IS A STEP CLOSER

25th May 2023

A new hospital for Basingstoke and North Hampshire came an important step closer today. The Government has confirmed that Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust can move forward to the next stage of their work to build it.

For the past three years the Trust has been working on its business plan, a period that I found intensely frustrating. I knew there was a lot of work being carried out behind the scenes but with little or nothing being said publicly..

The good news is that the behind-the-scenes work has been successful. A business plan has been produced and it has been accepted by the Treasury, which effectively secures £800 million funding – making it the largest ever infrastructure project Basingstoke has ever seen. I congratulate the Hospital Trust on getting through this milestone. The next stages will include decisions on confirming the preferred site, designing the hospital, consultation with the public and securing planning consent.

From my days as a Hospital Trust Governor, I have supported this project, and I want to see the work moving forward quickly. I also hope, assuming that the preferred site is near Junction 7 of the M3, that any thoughts of warehouses on the other side of the road will be dropped in favour of a science park. This could complement the new hospital and make a much better gateway to the town.

This is an exciting time for Basingstoke.

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PROGRESS REPORT ON BRIGHTON HILL ROUNDABOUT

12th March 2023

I took another opportunity to look round the work on the Brighton Hill roundabout on Friday. The main headline is that the work remains on schedule.

We are in the middle of a disruptive spell for the road users, whilst the main surface of the new layout is being laid. The engineering details of this work are fascinating: the road surface has to be laid to precise tolerances for strength purposes. Too deep, and the aggregates will sink; too shallow and they will stick through the surface.

I inquired about the cambers on the road. In the early days of this roundabout, we had lorries overturning because the cambers were wrong. I was assured that this has all been checked in advance. The designers used a 3D modelling tool, to help design every aspect of the project before it went out to tender.

The contractors are still waiting for OpenReach to come to site and complete their trench work around the location of the cable strike last year.

I asked again about ‘early wins’ – might there be parts of the scheme that could open to the public in advance of the whole thing being finished? There are some potentials, mainly footpaths and cycleways, but no final decisions on that yet.

I have found it a learning experience to follow the construction as it has progressed. Much of the work will end up underground and (hopefully) not be seen again for decades, but it is all an essential part of delivering a successful project.

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LAW CHANGE NEEDED

20th February 2022

We need a change in planning law.

Currently there is a requirement for Councils to demonstrate that they have a five year housing land supply. The law was intended to ensure that Councils keep a steady supply of land coming forward for development.

If a Council can’t demonstrate a five-year-housing-land supply, Government inspectors can be expected to take this into account when determining planning appeals, with an assumption that they will approve applications. It sounds sensible but it has rebounded in a most bizarre and unexpected way in Basingstoke.

Our Borough Council doesn’t have a five-year housing land supply, largely because Manydown has taken much longer to open up than was expected (as I warned it would). You would expect, therefore, for housebuilding levels to be low. Not so – more of this in a moment.

Developers have twigged that they can choose any green field they want in Basingstoke and Deane and apply to develop it. They know that, if it is refused, they are likely to get approval on appeal.

Developers are meant to like a Council that keeps a steady supply of land coming forward. But, because of the way the law is designed, they like even more a Council that DOESN’T have a five-year housing land supply. In effect, they can ramp up development without limit. That’s how we get to the nonsense position that Basingstoke is building 1,200 new homes a year but apparently failing to meet its target of under a thousand.

It is a classic example of well-meaning legislation succumbing to the law of unintended consequences. The impact, here in Basingstoke, is a nonsense and the law needs to be changed.

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BIG DECISIONS

9th February 2023

Budget decisions: Hampshire County Council’s spending plans for 2023/24 are to be considered on 23^rd February by the council. The plans total £2.6bn and cover hundreds of services delivered by the authority to its 1.4 million residents, including supporting its most vulnerable children and adults.

The capital budget proposals will also be considered, with building and infrastructure projects totalling £645.3m over the next three years being offered for approval.

These include:

• £175m for new and extended school buildings to provide a further 4,393 school places
• £142m for structural maintenance and improvement of roads and bridges.
  – £103m of Integrated Transport Plan schemes including £58m of schemes focused around walking and/or cycling improvements
• £100m to address condition-based enhancements to schools.
• An additional £0.3m funding towards the Flood Risk and Coastal Defence Programme as part of HCC’s response to the challenge of climate change.

“County Deal” : The government has welcomed the proposals put forward by HCC and others for a Pan-Hampshire County Deal, including a directly elected mayor and extensive devolution from central government down to the local area.

The next stage is for government officials to meet with upper tier and unitary authorities across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight this month, including to explore how the proposals might be taken forward as part of their next wave of negotiations.

The proposals can be seen at

https://democracy.hants.gov.uk/documents/s100275/Pan-Hampshire%20Deal%20Prospectus%202022.pdf.

Roads maintenance: Bad weather has provided many challenges to Hampshire Highways, especially from blocked drains, flooding and potholes. Even though the weather has improved recently with the water tables falling, the overnight freezing temperatures have exacerbated the pothole situation with many more now appearing.

Service demand across the highways service remains extremely high so all work is having to be prioritised so that the highest risk issues are repaired first. This includes the use of temporary ‘infill’’ repairs to major potholes, that can then be addressed on a longer lasting basis later.

The outlook for this month is unfavourable. Please continue to report highways issues online. A reminder that the number to call in emergency is 0300 555 1388 (0830-1700) Monday to Friday, or outside officer hours, 101.

Drain cover thefts: Road users across Hampshire are being urged to be vigilant after a recent spate of drain cover thefts – leaving deep openings in the road surface which represent a hazard to drivers, pedestrians and cyclists, and also result in significant expense to council taxpayers. To report a missing cover, please call the number given above or report it to the police online at https://www.hampshire.police.uk/ro/report/ocr/af/how-to-report-a-crime/

County Councillor grants :The deadline for applications for my County Councillor grant budget is 28th February. Please let me know if there are any schemes locally you would like me to support.

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TIME FOR THE PHONE COMPANY TO THINK AGAIN

27th January 2023

For a second time, planning permission has been refused for a mobile phone mast on the footpath alongside Woodbury Road. This decision has been taken at Officer level and the reasons given are:

” 1          The proposed development by virtue of the scale, height and positioning in close proximity to residential dwellings, the highway, pedestrian crossings and on a footpath at this point within the street scene would form an unsympathetic form of development that would not positively contribute to the character and appearance of the area and would be to the detriment of visual amenity.  The development is therefore contrary to the National Planning Policy Framework (2021) and Policies EM1 and EM10 of the Basingstoke and Deane Local Plan 2011-2029.

 2          The proposed development would cause obstruction to the footpath by virtue of the placement of the cabinets and pole on the footpath to the detriment of the public and its users. The development is therefore contrary to the National Planning Policy Framework (2021) and Policies CN9 and EM10 of the Basingstoke and Deane Local Plan 2011-2029.”

Needless to say, having objected to the application on exactly these terms, I am delighted with the decision. That is two applications that have been turned down on this site, one for a 20 metre mast and this one, for a 15 metre mast.

The question now is ‘where do we go from here? To my mind, the applicants really need to respect the decisions that have been made – twice – and modify their approach. There are alternatives to using the footpaths.

I believe the ‘footpath’ applications have been driven by cost-of-ownership considerations. It may well be cheaper for the company to site equipment on pavements because it avoids rent for using a third party’s land and the power infrastructure is easy to access. That approach may serve the applicants well, but not the local community – the visually impaired, wheelchair users and people with prams.

The applicants need to search for solutions that show greater regard to the local community. I ask them to state their intentions.

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THOUGHTS ON LEADERSHIP AND AMBITION FOR THE BOROUGH

18th January 2023

The discussion following my post about siting a university in Basingstoke has been fascinating. Worrying and sad at times. But fascinating.

To me, being a Councillor means being a civic leader. To be a leader, you must have a sense of the direction in which you want to take the town. You need ambitions for the Borough. Without direction and ambition, you are not a leader.

I experienced this in the 1990s when I was Leader of the Borough Council, and championed the building of the Anvil. ‘Why on earth would a place like Basingstoke want a concert hall?’, I was asked. Yes, really.

There were many positive reasons. Because people in our community would love to go to the concerts and shows it would stage. Because it would bring people into the town who would spend their money here. Because it would boost the shopping centre. Because I wanted Basingstoke to be better than it was then.

The Anvil was built because my colleagues and I had ambitions for Basingstoke, and because we were prepared to be civic leaders and put our political careers on the line for something we believed in.

And now the Leadership v Cynicism battle is happening again, with the idea of a university in Basingstoke. It is an aspiration that has been around for many years and was recently resurrected, to his credit, by the current Leader of the Borough Council, prompted by the likelihood of the AA vacating Fanum house. It is a good aspiration, though it will require the co-operation of others to make it happen.

So, consider this: if the NHS decides to build our new hospital, it has spoken of it being a teaching hospital. The University of Winchester offers nursing degree courses, on which work placements account for approximately half the time. Wouldn’t it be a great vision if the academic degree training could be offered in Basingstoke too, teaching our future hospital staff the skills they need? There’s a vision that would join two ambitions together.

Or a school of dentistry? To qualify as a dentist you need to complete a course, which usually lasts five years and leads to a bachelor’s degree (either BDS or BChD). The list of training schools published by the British Dental Association shows that the nearest one is in London, and there isn’t one in the South of England. Could we get one in Basingstoke and make our town a centre of excellence for a profession crying out for more recruits?

Yes, a university in Basingstoke may begin as an outreach, and it may start small, but it could grow over time. After all, the highly respected University of Winchester grew out of a teacher training college.

Such an approach would create and attract jobs here, establish a centre of excellence and increase the stature of the town. It would have a positive impact on firms considering moving their operations here.

If no-one offers the leadership to at least explore these things, they will not happen. If cynics without ambition are allowed to kill ideas like these, that is simply not good enough.

So, I make no apology for supporting the idea of a university in Basingstoke. We may succeed. We may fail. But if we don’t try, we will certainly fail.

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POLICY SUGGESTION ABOUT PHONE MASTS ON FOOTPATHS

16th January 2023

Here’s a question about the current spate of applications for phone masts. Why are they being sited on footpaths?

My suspicion is that the company making the applications has a policy to do this. A possible motivation is cost. I think that, by using footpaths, the installations can be classed as ‘street works’ and the operator can run its infrastructure, like power, under the pavements. The company will not have to secure permissions from third parties to use their land, nor will they have to pay rent for putting the equipment there, nor will they incur the costs of running cables onto other peoples’ land.

If I’m right, it’s all down to cost. But that, surely, must not be allowed to be the driver. I look round the area and see other phone masts on roundabouts and grass verges, and in the main a sensible distance from homes.

So, it is no surprise that the current applications are causing considerable disquiet: using footpaths in an urban area almost inevitably means putting the masts and cabinets close to homes. Cabinets and masts on footpaths will be obstacles and potential hazards to the visually impaired, to people with restricted movement who use mobilty aids like motorised wheelchairs, and to parents with prams and buggies.

It seems to me, therefore, that the ‘footpath option’ may be attractive to the operators but will inevitably prove, in the majority of cases, to be unpopular with local communities. Let us hope, therefore, that the planners in Basingstoke refuse these applications until that message is received.

In the hope of strengthening the case against masts on footpaths, I have written to the Borough Council, suggesting that a policy be included in the new local plan. My suggestion is that Basingstoke and Deane states that it will resist the siting of phone masts and ancillary equipment on footpaths. A Local Plan policy would give clear guidance to the companies not to propose such solutions.

Mobile networks provide important services, and we want them. But that doesn’t give the companies carte blanche to implement solutions that are to the detriment of the communities in which they operate. I look to the Borough Council, as local planning authority, to recognise this, and I await its response.

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YES, LET’S HAVE A UNIVERSITY IN BASINGSTOKE

4th January 2023

I have seen some pretty cynical comments about the idea of a university campus in Basingstoke. For my part, I think it is a worthy objective and one that I have advocated for years. I applaud the Leader of the Council for promoting the idea again, in the context of a future use for Fanum House.

Basingstoke has its fair share of university-capable young people. But, if they must move away in order to complete their education, do they come back? Are there job opportunities for them and for other graduates here?

In my family, I came back, but my brother didn’t. I fear that we lose a high proportion of our graduates to work elsewhere, and that must impact on the view that employers take of our local labour force. That will influence their decisions on whether or not to move their businesses here.

But there is more – a university not only caters for undergraduates but also has the capability of initiating research and attracting funding for it. Research leads to innovation, start-up companies and new jobs. I believe we need kind of employment opportunity in Basingstoke.

In many ways the character of a town is set by the employment it offers. If all we attract here are warehouses, there will be limited scope for high-end jobs. I don’t want a town where graduates feel they have no prospects and, in order to progress their careers, they have to move away.

So yes, let’s have a university if we can. It may start as a satellite of another institution. But in time it could grow to be the University of North Hampshire, based in Basingstoke. That would be a real asset to the town and the people who live here.

Let’s show the ambition and belief in ourselves to pursue this option.

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NOW LET’S PLAN THE WEST OF BASINGSTOKE PROPERLY

16th December 2022

I welcome the inspector’s decision to dismiss the planning appeal for warehouses near junction 7 of the M3. Now I want to see the Borough and County Councils rise to the challenge of planning the west of Basingstoke and controlling what happens there, rather than being at risk from developers..

That planning needs to be done on the basis that Oakdown Farm is not the right place for warehousing. The buildings are too big for that location and have too much impact on the local community. A much better use, in my opinion, would be a science park – especially if the new hospital comes to fruition on the other side of the A30. That would be a much better gateway into the town.

In addition, the Borough and County need to work out the traffic arrangements for the west of Basingstoke, including what is to be done about the hugely busy A30 corridor. They need to address whether there should be another crossing of the railway line for north / south traffic, and what form that should take.

I see the inspector’s decision as immensely important. He has respected the role of the planning authority, and its job to plan for the area. Basingstoke and Hampshire need now to rise to that challenge.

Pressure group CAGE, Dummer Parish Council and we who opposed the warehouses have shown that the arguments we presented to the public inquiry were cogent, well-informed and reflective of local opinion. We need now to be listened to, and included in the planning process to ensure that what comes out makes sense for the west of Basingstoke.

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VICTORY FOR WAREHOUSE CAMPAIGNERS!

15th December 2022

Good news for Christmas – the inspector has dismissed the appeal for warehouses at Oakdown Farm. Readers of this blog will know that I have consistently opposed this proposed development and that I spoke at the public inquiry.

This is a triumph for Councillors over Officers. Officers had recommended the application for approval, but the Development Control committee overruled that, and the inspector found that their decision was correct. That doesn’t happen very often.

The inspector found that the warehouse plans were too intrusive on the site. He spoke about the degree of landscape and visual harm arising from the scheme, the extent of the groundworks required and the scale and massing when set against the site’s constraints. “These matters have not been satisfactorily resolved” he found.

My feeling was that development on this site was premature and that the west of Basingstoke needs planning in its entirety, rather than having developers pick off one field at a time.

I see the inspector’s decision as immensely important. It recognises that planning authorities should have the authority to plan. And the responsibility. They should take that responsibility seriously.

Pressure group CAGE and Dummer Parish Council deserve our congratulations and thanks for the work they have put in. They are quoted in the Gazette as saying “We need to thank our local councillors, our MP, and county councillors Stephen Reid and Juliet Henderson who brilliantly supported us. They were all fantastic.” That’s very kind – but the major pat on the back should go to them.

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HOUSE BUILDING NUMBERS – AN UPDATE

15th December 2022

I am increasingly optimistic that the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill will let Councils like Basingstoke and Deane take past high housing levels into account when deciding their future local plans. At the moment the system says ‘you’ve built high numbers in the past so that must be what you need. Keep it up!’

It’s like steering the ship by looking at the wake.

By building more homes than Basingstoke needs, we have simply attracted people to move here and helped other districts to keep their numbers low.

Now the word is that the Government will recognise in planning guidance that areas like Basingstoke have done their bit – and more – and should be able to argue for a slow-down. Good.

There has been no real let-up in the rate of Basingstoke’s growth since the days of the London overspill scheme in the sixties and seventies. The last real attempt to slow things down resulted in a horrible East/West split with some Councillors seeing the move as a plot against their wards, and opposing the plan that resulted. Ironically those Councillors are now the among the loudest in complaining about the high growth rates.

Had that last attempt succeeded, the growth rate could have slowed to around 600 homes per year. As it is, we are running at about 1,200.

We badly need the Government to deliver on its recent words and give Basingstoke a break.

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ACTION ON CAR MEETS

14th December 2022

A few months ago, I attended a ‘Community Chat’ organised by Maria Miller MP, about crime and policing. Present were the Police and Crime Commissioner and the new District Commander for Basingstoke. I took the opportunity to raise the issue of car meets in Basingstoke, an extreme form of anti-social behaviour that was featuring heavily in my contacts from residents.

I wasn’t sure what action would be taken. So it was with some pleasure that I received a message recently from Hampshire Police. During an operation on Sunday 11 December, officers checked more than 20 vehicles through police systems across the town and their impact was dramatic:

• Three vehicles were seized due to having no insurance.
• A vehicle that had bald tyres was prohibited and must not be used
• One motorist was stopped for not having a driving licence.
• One car did not have vehicle tax
• Two people were dealt with at the scene for not wearing seatbelts.
• Two vehicles had illegal tinted windows. The tints were voluntarily removed by vehicle owners following engagement with officers.
• A small amount of cannabis was seized, and a man was dealt with by way of a community resolution.
• A 27-year-old man from Tadley was arrested on suspicion of an immigration offence. He has been dealt with by Immigration Enforcement.

As part of the operation, officers engaged with around 30 motorists who had gathered at the Leisure Park on Euskirchen Way. Motorists were spoken with, and advice was given regarding modifications they had made to their vehicles.

Intelligence was gathered during the operation and warnings may be issued at a later date, to both drivers and vehicles for usage in a manner causing alarm, distress and annoyance. If either are subsequently stopped, then a seizure may take place.

I have great sympathy for the people who have contacted me. They are rightly angered by the disregard the car meets show for the community. The list of offences above demonstrates to me that these are not just enthusiasts, meeting to admire their cars (nothing wrong with that) but people with insufficient regard for the community in which they operate.

If we witness further antisocial behaviour of this nature, the message is to report it. If you have concerns or information on any criminal activity taking place, please contact the Police on 101 or 999 in an emergency.

The Police are encouraging residents to report anti-social vehicle use and people can fill in personal impact statements. Statements can be submitted by emailing Basingstoke.Town.Police@hampshire.police.uk

You can also report vehicle crime through Hants SNAP, which is a police initiative aimed at dealing with alleged road traffic offences. For more information, visit https://www.hampshire.police.uk/police-forces/hampshire-constabulary/areas/hants-snap/hantsnap/hants-snap—report-an-incident/

I welcome what the police have done and hope that they will be able to keep up the pressure on our behalf.

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NEW PHONE MAST APPLICATIONS (SORT-OF)

12th December 2022

The applicants who wanted to build phone masts in Woodbury Road and Buckingham Parade have re-submitted the applications. They have lowered the mast heights from 20 metres to 15. but that is the only material change. Both are still in the same places, on the same footpaths, still visually obtrusive and still close to local homes.

As before, I have objected to both applications, paraphrasing the words used by the Borough Council officers when they turned down the original ones. Here is the Woodbury Road objection …

“I am the County Councillor for the Basingstoke South West division within which Woodbury Road is situated.

“I note that this application is a resubmission of one previously refused, and that the only material change is for the height of the mast to be reduced. In my opinion, the reduction does not mitigate the visual problems associated with this application.

“I believe that the change does not overcome the reasons for refusal of the previous application. The proposed development, by virtue of the scale, height and its positioning in close proximity to residential dwellings, the highway, pedestrian crossings and on a footpath at this point within the street scene, continues to form an unsympathetic form of development that cannot positively contribute to the character and appearance of the area and would be to the detriment of visual amenity.  The development is therefore contrary to the National Planning Policy Framework (2021) and Policies EM1 and EM10 of the Basingstoke and Deane Local Plan 2011-2029.”

“The revised application does nothing to mitigate the problems that would be caused by being situated on an important footpath, which is a walking route to the local school, bus services and shops. It would cause obstruction to the footpath by virtue of the placement of the cabinets and pole on the footpath to the detriment of the public and its users. The development is therefore contrary to the National Planning Policy Framework (2021) and Policies CN9 and EM10 of the Basingstoke and Deane Local Plan 2011-2029.”

I am disappointed that the applicants have tried this approach – make a concession on height but disregard everything else. It is almost as if they are programmed to ignore local opposition – they know they are going to get it, so they don’t pay attention to what people say.

I believe their choice of locations, on footpaths, is driven in part by cost. It would be more expensive and legally more complex to place the masts on. For example, grass verges.

There must be alternative locations that would be more acceptable to the Hatch Warren and Kempshott communities, and I think it is incumbent on the applicants to engage with us positively to find them.

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COPING WITH THE COLD WEATHER

10th December 2022

We are well and truly into a cold snap, with thick frosts producing icy conditions overnight. This prompts a massive behind-the-scenes operation from Hampshire County Council.

The Council has built up stocks of salt to around 20,000 tonnes, and this will be distributed to the roads by a fleet of gritter lorries and drivers who have been trained with advanced driving skills to enable them to stay safe in slippery conditions. The lorries are equipped with satnav, automatic salt delivery mechanisms and snow ploughs.

The main roads are always treated first – the 44 routes that carry the majority of the County’s traffic. Then the secondary routes can be addressed.

I sometimes receive comments like “Well, I’ve never seen a gritter.” My best advice, if anyone wants to see one, is to keep watch through the early hours of the morning. That is when much of this important work is done.

In addition, there are thousands of blue or yellow salt bins around the County so that residents can help to keep their local roads passable. I was successful in getting one installed in Gloucester Drive recently, which is quite a steep hill. It doesn’t take a lot of salt to produce a beneficial effect.

The very cold weather can make driving treacherous so, please, take special care and drive according to the conditions. No-one wants a tragic accident at any time, let alone so close to Christmas.

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BRIGHTON HILL ROUNDABOUT – UPDATE

9th December 2022

On 8^th December, I reviewed progress on the improvements to the Brighton Hill roundabout. I was told that the works remain on schedule, and they are about halfway through the 95-week programme.

Despite the very wet weather a few weeks ago, the exposed chalk has held up well and not turned to mush, which would have made progress very difficult. Most of the huge concrete soakaways have been installed and the ground around them built up again. All that is visible are the access hatches on top.

A 33,000 volt cable has been redirected successfully, using the redundant subways under the old road to help reduce costs.

I asked about the cable strike that knocked out phone and internet connections -Is everything fully resolved? Yes, the repairs were made and have proved resilient, but some work is needed to improve the access chambers should the need arise to get at the cables again.

I asked about ‘quick wins’. By this, I meant that there are areas where, for example, a new footpath and cycle path have been laid out but not yet finished. If they could be completed, residents could get early benefits while work continues on the rest of the scheme. The officer with me said that they would examine this.

Finally, we discussed the Christmas break coming up. If there is one thing that people hate, it is seeing roads blocked off with no work taking place. The good news is that (as far as practical) the cones in the roundabout will be cleared away over Christmas, to allow as clear a route as possible through the roundabout during the period when work pauses.

The £20 million scheme is designed to improve the capacity of this vital interchange on the A30 corridor into town.

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HOUSING NUMBERS – IMPORTANT LEGISLATION FOR BASINGSTOKE

8th December 2022

The changes that the Government has announced to its housing legislation could be very important for Basingstoke. I have argued in previous articles that Basingstoke has been building more than its fair share of new homes for too long, and it is time that we stopped building homes for other Councils’ residents to move into.

On the face of it, the Government is proposing that local Councils should have more control over their housing numbers and no longer be dictated to by centrally-derived targets.

But possibly the most important announcement is the ending of the ‘5-year housing land supply’ rule. In Basingstoke, this has handed enormous power to developers who feel they can choose a green field, apply to build on it and have a better-then-evens chance of winning permission on appeal, even if local democracy says ‘no’.

Before cheering, I want to see the actual legislation and know for certain how these changes are going to be implemented. In my experience, central governments of all colours are loathe to hand power to local councils.

If the change of direction actually happens, it will be a major victory not just for local campaigners but also for the Members of Parliament who were brave enough to raise their heads above the parapet and demand that the current system be altered.

I will hope to see our Borough Council embrace the new legislation and use it to draw up a local plan that finally slows down the headlong concreteification of Basingstoke.

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LOOKING OUT FOR HEDGEHOGS

29th November 2022

One of the benefits of being involved in public life, is that you get to meet hundreds of interesting people, many of whom are experts in subjects that matter but are too often overlooked. That has happened again this week.

I attended a small meeting about encouraging wildlife in Hatch Warren and Beggarwood with the Hatch Warren Nature Group. They are very concerned at the huge number of Hedgehogs being killed in the local area.

I know through observing our garden that the hedgehogs have been moving about much later this year than normal, probably due to the impact of global warning. They should be hibernating now, though.

There are sightings of hedgehogs all around the town but two of the most common areas are around Woodbury Road and Danebury Road in Hatch Warren. Unfortunately, many get killed when crossing roads.

The nature group feels that a quick win, which is relatively inexpensive, would be to put signs up in as many ‘hot spot’ areas as possible. They can go on wheelie bins and lamp-posts. If you would like to buy one, here is a link:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hedgehogs-Please-Drive-Carefully-Safety/dp/B09VCHSFND/ref=asc_df_B09VCHSFND/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=606653460150&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3948711252050558934&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006501&hvtargid=pla-1679823647663&psc=1

The Nature Group is looking to find a way to put signs on street furniture in ‘hot spot’ areas to remind drivers.

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DON’T CALL IT ‘MINDLESS’

14th November 2022

It’s such a shame: paid staff, volunteers and community-minded residents get together to make something that is an asset to the neighbourhood and vandals decide to smash it up.

Beggarwood’s Café in the Park seems to attract an unfair share of this criminality. A year ago, their outside tables suffered and I used part of my County Council grant to fund some new ones, more heavy duty. Now I see pictures of these being attacked as well.

In cases like this, the newspapers like to use the term ‘mindless vandalism’. But that’s wrong. It isn’t mindless. Smashing up community assets is a deliberate decision. They know what they are doing. They have made a conscious decision regarding what they want to do, and the only possible reason is that they hold the community in contempt.

The CCTV cameras at Beggarwood have picked up clues as to who these people are, and someone out there may recognise them. Please co-operate with the Police. If left to their own devices, these vandals may progress onto worse crimes. It is in their and the community’s interests that we identify them and stop this behaviour.

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ROAD WORKS – DOES IT REALLY HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS?

2nd November 2022

If there is one thing that is guaranteed to annoy and offend people, it is road works with temporary traffic lights – and nothing happening. This has been the situation in Beggarwood recently, where the sheer volume of holes in the ground has reached ridiculous proportions.

I have already reported the lights at both ends of Beggarwood Lane where one apparently malfunctioned, causing huge queues and people turning round to go out the other way, only to find another queue at the other set of lights.

Today, as part of my attempt to monitor the situation, I drove past the works at the southern end of Beggarwood Lane, only to find temporary lights and three locations at which nothing at all seemed to be happening.

It strikes me that the utilities that have the right to dig up our roads, show insufficient regard for the impact they are having on the community. Not so long back we had the water company works on the A30 causing disruption in Heather Way, leading to an emergency road closure.

In the South-West corner of Basingstoke we seem to have road works everywhere. It is too much to ask for some consideration?

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WINKLEBURY RESIDENTS TAKE ON THE SYSTEM

27th October 2022

I used to represent the Winklebury area as County Councillor and I still take an interest. At the heart of the area is the Winklebury Centre: tired, run down and needing redevelopment. Nearby is the old Fort Hill site. Putting them together, the opportunity exists to do something really exciting – something that will benefit Winklebury and Manydown for generations.

But the planning application submitted by the Housing Association, Vivid, misses the target. It’s not exciting – worse, local residents find it unimaginative, formulaic and unambitious. The Winklebury and Manydown Community Action Group has produced a report, a huge amount of work, that presents cogent arguments as to why this scheme should not go ahead as proposed. Here are some extracts from their Executive Summary:

“It all started so positively. The ambition to regenerate Winklebury was universally supported and included in the Local Plan which said: ‘A masterplan or development brief should be prepared demonstrating proposals that will positively support and complement the comprehensive wider development of the area’.

“In 2018, Winklebury residents, Hampshire County Council (HCC), BDBC, the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), residents’ groups, Vivid, the police, local education organisations, and Voluntary Community and Social Enterprises (VCSEs) formed the Winklebury Regeneration Partnership and worked at length to produce plans to regenerate Winklebury. They mutually agreed the problems and challenges that needed to be addressed.

“The Partnership developed a strategy that would deliver significant benefits to the community. It included a one stop health and wellbeing hub, co-located with open space on Fort Hill, in the heart of Winklebury to serve the 15,000 residents of Winklebury and Manydown. The hub would replace the old GP surgery and the ageing community centres.

“The strategy was well received, The Borough Council identified how it could be funded. The Clinical Commissioning Group included the health and wellbeing hub in its North Hampshire Health and Care Transformation Plan 2018-2023.

“For reasons never fully explained, those plans for Winklebury’s regeneration were ditched by the Borough Council later in 2019. They were replaced by the plans in [the] application (22/01934/FUL), which Vivid’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) describes as “unashamedly housing-led”.

“The local community saw the revised proposals as unsatisfactory, failing to meet the original, universally agreed ambitions. The new GP surgery cannot provide the range of health and wellbeing services required under NHS and HCC policy. A small 178sqm community facility squeezed into the ground floor of the Winklebury Centre would become the only community facility in Winklebury once the Sycamore Halls are forced to close through old age.

“The new plans miss the opportunity to provide a community facility co-located with open space. It’s not that the open space doesn’t exist – it’s there, on the empty HCC-owned Fort Hill site. It is the will and ambition to exploit it properly that is lacking.

“It is galling that all over the Borough (Popley, Oakridge, Chineham, Oakley, Overton, Beggarwood, Brighton Hill, Tadley, Kempshott, Rooksdown, Old Basing and more) the obvious benefits of having community facilities next to open space have been seized, but the Winklebury plans fail to do so.

“In fact, the Vivid plans will cause a reduction in open space, when houses are built on the playground in Carisbrooke Close. This will add to the 21ha deficit of open space in Winklebury.  Over 100 trees will be lost. Parking problems will be made worse, as significantly fewer spaces will be provided than stipulated in the BDBC Parking Supplementary Planning Document (SPD).

“The scheme is incomplete, as it has failed to include the redevelopment of the Three Barrels pub site. At present, the prospect is that this derelict public house will remain to mar the look of the whole area.

“The regeneration proposals are a missed opportunity, lacking in imagination and ambition. They are formulaic and bear scant regard to the positive vision that was agreed by all parties when the project started. Though the applicant may argue that they are an improvement on what is there now, they offer only ‘newness’ and not the long-term step-change that the community thought it was going to get.

“Since the Winklebury community first saw the Vivid plans, it has argued that they do not deliver on the objectives that were agreed. Over 15% of residents signed a petition within 2 weeks calling for the plans to be reviewed, particularly with regard to the poor provision of community facilities.

“The Borough Council supported Winklebury’s request by passing a motion calling for a review to take place. There has been no review. Vivid has made a few changes to the plans but has not addressed their fundamental weaknesses.

“These plans represent what Vivid wants, and not what Winklebury needs.”

Needless to say, I recommend reading the report. The best way to access it is through the Borough Council’s planning portal at https://planning.basingstoke.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=REUKIMCR0AQ00. This will also take you to the scheme details, should you wish to comment.

If nothing else, this mammoth piece of work shows how committed individuals with knowledge of their community can put together arguments that challenge those of the professionals. It needs to be taken seriously.

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POLITICAL PARTIES NEED TO CHANGE THEIR LEADER SELECTION METHODS

26th October 2022

Back in early 1975 I found myself on News at Ten because I had spoken in favour of a change in the way the Conservative Party elected its leader. The Ted Heath v Margaret Thatcher selection was on, and I proposed a ‘two stage’ approach.

Subsequently the party adopted a two-stage approach but, in my opinion, the wrong way round. I wanted members of the party to shortlist potential leaders and then the Parliamentary party to choose from that list. The party went for MPs shortlisting and the members making the final choice. That was an error.

The problem is that in any party the membership is not necessarily representative of the people who vote for it. The members are the political activists, people with axes to grind. More than that, though, they cannot know how the candidates actually perform in the House of Commons nor how well they command support among their colleagues. So, for me, instead of members making the final choice, advised by MPs, the MPs should make the final choice advised by the members. Recent selections prove my point.

My observation applies to Labour too. The choice of Jeremy Corbyn was a triumph of ideology over common sense and the victory of Ed Miliband over his brother David was, well, surprising.

For democracy to work at its best, we need our political parties to be led by the best. Current systems to do not guarantee that, so they need to be changed.

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IF YOU DON’T CATER FOR THE CAR …

21st October 2022

Our Borough Council has produced a parking strategy for the town centre. It is an incomplete piece of work.

Years ago, huge parts of Rooksdown and Buckskin were built with a maximum of two parking spaces per property. Many had less, so the average number of spaces per home was less than two. These standards were dictated by the government of the day, and they were a disaster.

The thinking was ‘if you don’t cater for the car, it will go away.’ It didn’t.

‘If you make life difficult for motorists, they will use public transport instead.’ They didn’t.

Instead, people kept their cars, which they saw as essential to their quality of life, and parked them where they could. On grass verges. On pavements. In front of other peoples’ houses.

The result was (and is) social tension and a degradation of the estates.

Now Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council is working on a new parking strategy for the town centre and my fear is that they are making the same mistake all over again.

The stated objective of the plan is “To provide a positive framework to support the town centre, economy and the environment whilst identifying the quantum and location of car parking required in support future growth in the borough up to 2040”.

Those words are important: “… in support (of) future growth …”

Thing is, that is the only place in the report that the word ‘growth’ appears. It is part of the objective of the report never mentioned again.

In round terms, Basingstoke’s rate of growth is 1,000 homes per year. With 2040 being 18 years away, we are talking about 18,000 new homes in that time. Some may not have cars. Others will have one or more.

The report acknowledges development sites like Manydown and then dismisses their impact with the thought (or hope) that they will be catered for by a Mass Rapid Transit link. Unproven, this is the triumph of hope over experience.

In short, the report deals exclusively with the measures that the Borough is planning to reduce car journeys, taking us back to the old thinking of ‘ignore the car and it will go away’.

I am all for encouraging greater use of public transport. But you don’t do that by penalising people who have genuine and responsible needs to use their private cars. And you certainly don’t do it at a time when bus services are in decline. That’s pie in the sky.

The Covid pandemic has had two major impacts on travel:

• It has caused people to work and shop from home more.
• It has caused people to be more wary about using public transport.

The planners are giving full weight to the former and no weight to the latter.

Making people use buses more is difficult in Basingstoke. The town is not tightly packed like a city centre, where buses are the recognised way to travel. Basingstoke is spread out. Buses take a long time to get anywhere. Basingstoke has been planned with houses over here, shopping over there and jobs somewhere else. All too often, there simply isn’t a bus service that goes where people need it to go.

So I urge the planners to think very, very carefully about what they might do to our town centre. If I were Reading, Guildford or Andover, I would rub my hands with glee at the sight of the Borough Council here making it difficult to use Basingstoke town centre.

If you don’t cater for the car, it won’t go away. It will go where you don’t want it to.

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MY COMMENTS DELIVERED TO THE WAREHOUSE INQUIRY

18th October 2022

I attended the planning inquiry considering the appeal lodged against refusal of permission to build warehouses near Junction 7. The format is formal and I therefore made notes. This is my submission:

Introduction

The first thing to say is that Oakdown Farm lies outside the current local plan and will remain so until the revision is published in two or three years time. The planning presumption, therefore, is that the site will not be developed during the current local plan period which runs to 2029.

I wish to offer the follow opinions to you:

• The warehouse application is not what Basingstoke needs in terms of jobs
• It is not sustainable in terms of the road system
• It is wrong as a gateway to the town

Jobs

In Hampshire, there is a weakness in labour supply matched by a surfeit of vacancies in the warehouse sector in Basingstoke.

Evidence you may wish to consider includes the report by Hampshire County Council’s Chief Executive to Cabinet, this month. In it she says:

“The weakness of the labour supply in Hampshire has been caused by slower population growth driven by ageing, and lower migration (Brexit and the pandemic).

“The latest population projections suggest that in the County area the working-age population could peak in 2024 and begin to decline from 2025 onwards. By 2030 there could be 6,100 fewer working age residents and 18,100 fewer by 2043 (-2.2%). The increase in pension age might soften the impact … but will not offset the long-term trend.”

On 11th October I made three searches for jobs in Basingstoke using the word ‘warehouse’

• on Joblist there were 335 warehouse vacancies returned in and around the Borough.
• Indeed indicated 968 warehouse jobs within a 25 mile radius of Basingstoke
• Reed showed 289, within a 15 mile radius.

Individually, I don’t suggest that any of these figures is an absolute truth. But collectively they offer an indication of Basingstoke’s position. We have no shortage of warehouse vacancies in Basingstoke – if anything there is a shortage of labour to fill the existing vacancies.

In addition, the ‘Basingstoke Gazette’ reported in June 2022 that a multi-million-pound regeneration of Viables Business Park in Basingstoke is complete, which will provide 190,000 sq. ft of manufacturing space and three warehouses for handling battery grade Lithium chemicals.

The conclusion that I reach and present to you at the beginning of this inquiry, is that the jobs this application will bring are not the right ones for Basingstoke. There is a considerable list of warehouse vacancies, a declining labour force in that sector and already more positions coming onto the market to make current shortages worse.

My commentary on what Basingstoke needs is this: North Hampshire does not have a university. The nearest universities are Reading, Winchester, Guildford and Southampton. Basingstoke undergraduates have to move away, and Basingstoke needs to offer jobs to attract them back as graduates. I therefore believe that a science park would be a far better use of this land.

Unfortunately, we do not have this type of forward-looking planning in Basingstoke. We have development led by the speculative planning applications of landowners. Even the emerging plan for the South West of Basingstoke followed, rather than generated, the submission of the original warehouse application on this land.

Roads

One of my criticisms of the Borough Council is that it did not ask for, or receive, a cumulative impact assessment for the developments to the west of Basingstoke. The 750 homes on Hounsome Fields on the A30, and the 1,000 homes on the Golf Course opposite, were each treated as a one-off. The warehouses have been treated as a one-off.

No-one has asked the question: in the context of the road system, which development is the straw that breaks the camel’s back?

The Borough and County Councils are pursuing a transport strategy for the west of Basingstoke based on modal shift. That, in itself, is an admission that the road system will not be able to cope. Whether that strategy succeeds or fails is immaterial: it is the commentary it offers that counts: the roads can’t cope.

These warehouses will add considerable, heavy traffic to the roads around them, and nobody will be able to tell you in this inquiry what the cumulative impact of all the developments will mean in terms of traffic.

Gateway

You will hear from others about the size and environmental impact of the proposed warehouses. It will be damaging, highly visible and it will define the area it dominates.

That is an issue not just in terms of its environmental impact, but also in terms of the image it will generate. The A30 is one of the major entry points into Basingstoke. Oakdown Farm is a gateway site. It would be far better to have something like a science park on the land, which would complement the potential new hospital opposite.

The warehouse proposals represent a wholly inappropriate advert for our town, one that will have a negative impact on Basingstoke. As a development, it is environmentally damaging and contextually inappropriate.

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NEW HOSPITAL FOR NORTH HAMPSHIRE

12th October 2022

I am sure I am not the only person to be confused by mixed messages coming from the Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust.

They say that their preferred location for a new hospital is near Junction 7 of the M3. When I was a Governor on the Trust, I supported this. I still do.

Their second preference was to redevelop the hospital on its existing site, but we were told that would be more expensive, logistically difficult and inconvenient for patients whilst it was happening.

So what are we to make of reports that the hospital trust is buying land near to the existing hospital? Have they changed their position? If so, why haven’t they said anything?

Whilst there is no hold-up in designating fields for housing, this vital infrastructure project seems to be taking forever to get to the next stage, which is public consultation.

Please, HHFT, tell Basingstoke what is going on.

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WHAT IS BEHIND THE M3 PROPOSALS FOR JUNCTIONS 7 AND 8?

9th October 2022

I have been thinking about the proposal to change Junction 8 into a fully-fledged motorway access, with slip roads.

Who would benefit?

Obviously, the residents of the 3,000 homes being mooted for Popham Airfield in Basingstoke’s draft local plan. They would welcome quick access to the M3. But that development alone doesn’t seem enough to justify such huge expense.

The potential changes will help with the ‘weaving’ problem between Junction 7 and Junction 8. But that is a nuisance rather than an accident-causing hazard – a bit of poor design with which drivers seem to cope. No, I don’t think that can be the whole story either.

So, here’s an alternative thought. If 3,000 homes are built at Popham, that would open the door for the owners of land at Micheldever Station to resurrect their aspirations to develop that land too. They could say that Popham conceded the point about developing in the area.

In other words, the motorway idea could be a precursor to the hugely opposed mini-town in mid-Hampshire, between Basingstoke and Winchester.

Councillors might consider, if allowed to debate it, that the time for this mini-town has come. But it should be done openly and not by stealth. Residents should know what is being considered and have the chance to make their views known.

I may be over-suspicious, of course. But if someone has a secret agenda, I will be looking out for it.

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EVIDENCE OF WHY THE LOCAL PLAN IS SO IMPORTANT

6th October 2022

I have a small update to the comments about the changes to M3 Junction 7 and 8.

Hampshire’s Executive Lead Member for Transport and Environment Strategy has said: “I believe it is right that I agree the recommended policy updates in order to support local plan making relating to development, with regard to the transport infrastructure improvements that may be needed in the future. If development of the scale envisaged takes place, it will be necessary to reserve land in order that provision is made for this infrastructure to be delivered in the future.

“The proposals outlined in the report are an indication of the type of infrastructure that could potentially be needed to cope with increasing volumes of traffic generated by new development.  It would of course be for National Highways to bring forward any detailed proposals for changes to the motorway and, as the report makes clear, there is no funding to make any changes at junctions 7 and 8 currently.”

These comments show how important it is for us to keep track of the emerging local plan. Even before it is agreed, the prospect of huge numbers of new homes is leading to significant policy decisions.

The key to everything is to bring those numbers down. Basingstoke has done its bit – and more – for decades.

Basingstoke risks going back to the 1960s, where we had huge, artificial growth without the infrastructure to support it.

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TRANSPORT STRATEGY

5th October 2022

Well, I attended the decision day that considered Basingstoke’s transport strategy and said my bit. I think I persuaded the Executive Member to take a few actions, but the headline is that all the policy decisions went through.

Link Road A339 to A30

One of my concerns was the need for a link road that joins the A339 Kingsclere Road in the North to the A30 in the south. I have been advocating this for over a decade. Sadly, because of the way Manydown North has been designed, I don’t see how the main road there can be used as a link road: it is too slow and passes through shopping centres. An alternative route needs to be identified quickly and the land reserved for that purpose, and I think this is now recognised by the County Council, if not the Borough.

I also asked that the crossing of the railway line should keep open the options of a bridge or a tunnel. A tunnel might be easier and would not require shutting down train services as would erecting a bridge over the lines. I believe this point was taken on board.

Mass rapid Transit

Readers of this blog will know that I am cautious about the proposed Mass Rapid Transit system based on buses. I pointed out that bus passenger levels in Basingstoke are still at about 65% of pre-pandemic levels. I suggested that there needs to be an engagement with the bus operators and independent experts to decide whether MRT is an effective approach to cater for the 15,000 new homes to the west of Basingstoke. My fear is that the planners are placing too many eggs in the MRT basket and that ‘modal shift’ might be difficult to achieve. We still need road proposals to be worked up, if only as an option.

M3 Junction 7

With regard to the M3, I endorsed the need for a study, but suggested that it would be very wrong to do anything that might present HCC as supporting the closure of the south-facing slip roads at junction 7 at this stage. The outcome of such closures would be to send traffic down the A30 to junction 8, past the preferred site for the new hospital. This could see the County Council being party to another obstacle to the successful delivery of this much needed project.

I objected again to the fact that this hugely impactful approach was being discussed without any discussion with Basingstoke’s County Councillors. This is such an important subject that I was at a loss to understand how it could be brought to a Decision Day without a proper engagement with the local County Councillors. I asked for a deferral of this decision to allow for a consultation, but this was not agreed. You may have seen that I made this point on Meridian TV that evening.

Leisure Park

The Basingstoke Leisure Park was discussed. The report said that Hampshire would look at land uses that provide for a local leisure offer, rather than a regional one. Given that the current leisure park has often been referred to as being of regional significance, this sounded as HCC was advocating a downgrade and I raised that concern. The Executive Member took this point and agreed that the status of the leisure park should remain broadly as it is now. Reading between the lines, I take this as a criticism of the now dropped plans for a retail outlet there, which could potentially have created more traffic than the roads could support.

Commentary

I would describe my interventions as (at best) ‘partially successful’ – I placed on the record some issues that I think are important for Basingstoke. But to change policies, one must be prepared for a long haul. I will continue to press for decisions that I see as best for out town.

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15,000 NEW HOMES NEED MORE THAN BUS LANES

30th September 2022

One of the policies being pursued by Hampshire County Council and Basingstoke and Deane is how to cope with the traffic generated by 15,000 new homes to the west of Basingstoke.

A strategic answer being suggested is “a step change in the provision of public transport … to allow the Borough to grow sustainably and to also respond to the climate emergencies”.

In other words, a Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system.

In other words – buses.

Work has taken place on producing an MRT plan, to understand where the routes might go. Three priority corridors are emerging:

• B3400, North Manydown, Leisure Park, Town Centre;

• A30 south-west corridor, including Ringway West and Churchill Way West; and

• A33 Ringway to Chineham, Taylors Farm and east of Basingstoke.

The work conducted to date acknowledges that in some locations the extent of the highway is limited and there may not be enough room to allow provision of bus priority measures such as bus lanes and bus gates, as well as interchanges and high-quality cycling infrastructure that is compliant with the latest design guidance.

Nevertheless, it is proposed to initiate preliminary discussions with affected landowners at an early stage of the design process to understand where the bus routes could go and whether land would need to be safeguarded for them.

To my mind there is a fundamental flaw in this – people don’t really want to catch buses. If they have them, they want to use their cars. For this strategy to work, the planners need to achieve a wholesale change in attitudes on the part of the public. That’s a big ask.

This is even more true since the pandemic. At a meeting I attended, Stagecoach reported passenger numbers at 65% of previous levels in Basingstoke. That may be due to more working and shopping from home, but it also stems from nervousness about contagions.

I witnessed the failure of ‘modal shift’ even before the pandemic: When Beggarwood was built, for example, developer contributions were used to subsidise a bus route for three years. When the money ran out, Stagecoach said there were not enough passengers to justify the service. But by then the houses had been built.

So, experience says that a transport strategy based on MRT alone is a massive gamble. At worst it would see the cars of 15,000 new homes put onto an already overloaded road system – a recipe for gridlock. To allow developments of this magnitude without building the roads to handle the traffic is, to my mind, fraught with danger.

To put it brutally: 15,000 new homes need more than bus lanes.

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M3 JUNCTION 7 PROPOSAL NEEDS DISCUSSION

25th September 2022

A major decision is coming up that affects Basingstoke and could impact the new hospital near Junction 7.

The Executive Member for Transport and Environment is being invited to throw Hampshire’s weight behind a proposal to bar vehicles from joining the M3 southbound at junction 7, or from leaving it northbound, with the associated closure of two slip roads.

Affected traffic would be required instead to use a modified junction 8 and directed along the A30, which would take it past the preferred location and entrance to North Hampshire’s new hospital.

I believe that a policy as important as this should be informed by an analysis of its impact on the proposed new hospital. There is no reference to such a study in the decision day papers.

Not only that, there will be major implications for local residents and businesses in the Dummer and North Waltham areas.

In my opinion, the proposed new hospital is the single most important infrastructure project in the Basingstoke and North Hampshire area and I want nothing to get in its way. I also know, as a regular user, that the A30 is a vital route for thousands of local residents.

I think it is utterly wrong, therefore, for such a major decision to be made without consultation with local Members and without knowledge of its potential impact. I will therefore be asking the Executive Member to defer consideration of the M3 proposals so that he can receive the full facts before deciding.

I am amazed and horrified that such a proposal can come to a policy-making decision without the full facts being available and without a consultation with Basingstoke’s County Councillors – all of them.

Seeking input from the local Members would not only be wise in terms of a making an informed decision, but also a basic courtesy.

The lan below is taken from the report.

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A SCHEME THAT LACKS VISION, IMAGINATION AND AMBITION

23rd September 2022

Years ago, the people of Winklebury were promised what was called ‘a regeneration’, based on the Winklebury Centre and the Fort Hill site.

The former Fort Hill School site would be re-purposed. Early draft plans indicated a Health Centre, Community Centre and a new Play School building. More homes would be provided. Better shops would be built. The Three Barrels site would be properly incorporated. The playgroup would be protected.

All of these aspects were important. Above all, the medical centre would serve the largest community in Basingstoke not to have one. The architecture of the Winklebury Centre, faded and unpopular from the day it was built, would be replaced.

After extensive consultation, Vivid, the housing association has presented a planning application that misses the early objectives by a country mile. It serves its own interests but fails to do the best for the people of Winklebury.

My biggest disappointment is the medical centre. The obvious solution was to put it adjacent to the Fort Hill field, where parking already exists and where the outlook would be calm and gentle. If it was put there, along with a community hall and room for the playgroup, Winklebury could have a ‘hub’ – a real community asset.

As it is, the proposal is for a doctor’s surgery in a three-storey building alongside Winklebury Way, where the top two floors are housing. It’s a GP surgery, not a medical centre, and I am not confident that it will be able to serve the needs of Winklebury and Manydown.

A little bit of imagination – just a little – would have seen the tired Sycamore Halls being brought into play. If they were replaced by a new Fort Hill community centre, and the Sycamore Way land freed up for redevelopment, extra income could have been generated. It is only a matter of time before someone declares the Sycamore Halls no longer fit for purpose. A bit of forethought now could avoid that future crisis.

Think of it – Winklebury could have a proper community hub. Sports could be played on the field, community activities organised in the centre and the full range of medical services provided out of the medical centre.

As it is, the proposal is to line the Fort Hill field with housing, largely severing it from the community and storing up problems as residents complain about noise from people enjoying themselves on the open space. There will be space for the playgroup, but no community centre.

Look at other communities and their community centre buildings which are next to open fields. Rooksdown, Popley, Hatch Warren, Beggarwood, Kempshott, Old Down, Chineham, Sherfield Park … and so. Why on earth should Winklebury not have the same benefit?

And the Three Barrels site? Not included. For whatever reason, that seems to have been speared on the ‘too difficult’ spike, and the chance of doing something constructive with it is not being taken.

I’m sorry, but this scheme lacks vision, imagination, and ambition. It is not the best for Winklebury. It should be thrown out.

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LATEST ON THE DENTAL SURGERY ON THE ISLAND SITE

20th September 2022

When Grainger, the landowners, applied for permission to develop what is called the Island Site at Beggarwood, one of their major selling points was that they proposed to build a new dental surgery. It helped them to present the proposals as sensitive to the needs of the local community.

They said in their Briefing Note at the time “Grainger proposes to construct a bespoke facility suitable for lease or sale to a dental operator. This building will have five consultation rooms.” Their illustrative drawing showed the surgery prominently and their text spoke of it generating approximately ten new jobs.

That was attractive to local Councillors. The proposed care home and the retirement apartments (now built) were needed, the pub was what most people had been asking for, and a new home for the dentists would be a real asset. The ideal solution would be that the existing practice would move into the new building and the space they vacated could be used to expand the Beggarwood GP surgery.

For whatever reason, Grainger have decided not to go through with their original proposal. Whether the money aspects didn’t work or they didn’t want to build the community facility, having achieved everything else, only they can say. Whatever the reasons, they decided to sell the site. It was advertised through Savills who reported that it sold for £365,000.

Thanks to the Basingstoke Gazette, we now know the identity of the company that has bought the dental surgery site from Grainger. It is a company called Select Enterprises and it specialises in providing children’s nursery facilities.

We understand that the new owners intend to do what they know best and use the site for a nursery. Its agents have written to the local Councillors saying that it is not their intention to build a dental surgery and a consultation will take place in due course.

The potential change of use raises two main questions:

• Will a new nursery be able to attract its customers without damaging the existing nursery business at Beggarwood? I hope that there will be room for both, as the families moving into the homes on Hounsome Fields and (soon) the Golf Course will be looking for this type of service.
• Is it still possible to get a dental surgery somewhere in the Beggarwood area?

Regarding the second point, I have asked if a meeting might be possible with Select Enterprises as I would like to explore an idea before their plans are set in stone – could the new nursery building be made dual use?

Might a nursery on the ground floor and a dental surgery on a second floor be an option? I fear this may be a long shot, but if you don’t ask …

I have also asked for a meeting with Bloor Homes (fixed for later this month) to see if there is any capacity to provide a dental surgery in their development on the Golf Course.

I am not opposed to the idea of a nursery – childcare is a very useful service, and the Island Site location will still be used in a way that offers a facility to the community.

However, the need for a larger dental surgery in the area remains and I believe we need to examine every option to make that happen.

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BRIGHTON HILL ROUNDABOUT UPDATE

20th September 2022

On 8^th September, I took the opportunity, along with other Councillors, to look round the work on the Brighton Hill roundabout, not knowing the tragic event that would take place later that day. Because of Queen Elizabeth’s death, I have delayed posting a report on the viewing until now.

The project is progressing well. The cable-strike which knocked out thousands of phone and internet connections, and the corrective actions needed, set the scheme back but the contractors are hopeful that they have mitigation plans to recover the lost time.

For me, what this visit emphasised is how much of the work takes place beneath the surface, never to be seen again once it is completed. Attached is a picture of the huge soakaways that are being put in place to drain the road surfaces. The rain that collects on the road is channelled away through traps and pipes to these massive concrete rings, from where it soaks into the chalk and eventually forms part of the water table.

I was impressed by the detailed thinking that goes into the forward planning of a project like this. It is designed to keep traffic, cyclists and pedestrians moving as the work progresses.

The scheme is trying to be a good neighbour. Where some trees are being trimmed back to make room for a footpath, I saw ‘NEST’ painted on the grass in blue paint. This was because pigeon nests had been spotted in the branches above that should not be disturbed.

Vibration sensors have been installed to ensure that nearby residents are protected from excess noise and disturbance.

The end-product will be a much wider, higher capacity, signalised roundabout and that is all that most people will see. But the thinking, and attention to detail, that has gone into it is colossal.

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HOW THE LOCAL PLAN PROCESS WORKS

4th September 2022

I thought it might be useful to outline how the local plan process works, and who does what.

First and foremost, the local plan is produced by the Local Planning Authority – in our case Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council. They go through several phases to get to the finished product.

The first phase is evidence gathering, and that’s where they are now. This is an opportunity for everyone to engage, to offer up their views on what the plan should contain. That is why many people are getting involved now, urging the Council to consider the evidence they offer.

The first big decision will be how many homes should be built each year. This is a Borough Council decision. Despite what some people have asserted, the County Council does not set the number.

That said, the government publishes a ‘standard methodology’, which is guidance on how the Borough should calculate its housing target. This isn’t set in stone: it is possible to argue ‘exceptional circumstances’ to justify a departure from the standard.

In Basingstoke, many people are urging the Council to construct an ‘exceptional circumstances argument. They say that we have been building many more homes than our area needs, and we’ve been doing it for many years. As a result, an exceptional circumstance has arisen where the rate of housing needs to slow down and infrastructure needs to catch up.

So, the Borough Council determines the growth rate, not Hampshire County Council. The County Council responds to the Borough’s direction of travel and advises on big-ticket items such as roads and schools.

Once the Borough Council has decided the annual number of homes to be built, it can move on to assigning sites for housing, employment, retail and other uses.

After the evidence gathering and the important site allocation decisions, the Council will have a draft local plan which it must offer up for public participation and engagement.

After considering the results of the consultation and making any changes it deems fit, the Borough Council will publish the draft local plan, and the Secretary of State will organise an Independent Examination. This will be run by a government inspector who may make changes to the draft plan. The public can give evidence at this stage and attempt to influence the inspector’s conclusions.

After the examination in public, and consideration of the changes that came out of it, the plan can be adopted as policy, and progress against it will be monitored and reviewed.

There are many useful guides to the process. One that I find helpful has been produced by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), working with the National Association of Local Councils (NALC). You can find it here: https://www.nalc.gov.uk/library/publications/1634-planning-explained/file

I hope this is useful.

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SLOWING DOWN THE RATE OF HOUSE BUILDING IN BASINGSTOKE

1st September 2022

I have written on this blog about the need to slow down the rate of housebuilding in Basingstoke. Now, our local MP has launched a petition calling for it to be halved.

In a TV interview, the Leader of the Borough Council has responded, agreeing that the numbers must come down. Opposition leaders have called for a slow-down too.

In short, it seems that a vast majority of Borough Councillors wants Basingstoke’s direction of travel to change: less emphasis on thousands of new homes and more on providing good services – letting the infrastructure catch up.

So now we enter an interesting phase. Will local democracy be seen to be working?

Will the Borough’s officers support the Members in proposing a lower annual build rate in the next local plan and framing good arguments?

When the crunch vote comes, will the Members vote for a slowdown?

When the plan is examined in public, will the inspector accept the arguments put forward, or impose a housing target similar to that which exists now?

The Local Plan is the most important policy document the Council produces. Will it be shaped by the 54 locally elected Members with a mandate to do what they see as right for the Borough, or by one person representing the Government?

I hope that Maria Miller will not just say ‘job done’ when she presents the petition. I urge her to put pressure on the Secretary of State to get an assurance that the arguments that eventually appear in Basingstoke’s new local plan will be respected and considered, and not simply overruled.

I also hope that the people of Basingstoke will do more than simply sign the petition. The more people who write to the Council and make the argument for a slow-down, the more weight those arguments will bear. The pace of growth impacts us all.

The time to make our feelings known is now, at the planning stage. By the time the diggers move in, it is too late.

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SOME THOUGHTS ON FUTURE PHONE MAST APPLICATIONS

29th August 2022

I am delighted that the Borough Council’s officers have rejected the application for phone masts on footpaths in Woodbury Road and Buckingham Parade. The episode highlighted an issue that I think needs to be addressed – the regulations for applications like these come from a variety of national Acts and local policies. This makes it difficult for anybody to navigate the process.

My colleagues and I wrote to the Borough Council suggesting that it should bring this information together into a single document which can be used by operators and public alike to inform the planning process.

The Borough’s Planning and Development Manager has acknowledged the point. He confirmed that, at the moment:

• the regulations on when permission is required are set out in Part 16 of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development Order), whilst
• the accepted position on health remains the conclusions of the Stewart report from 2000 and the ICNIRP (Internal Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection) guidelines for public exposure, and
• overarching planning policy is set out in Section 10 (Supporting high quality communications) of the National Planning Policy Framework

The Officer concluded saying “ … I think the point raised by Cllr Reid that a lot of this information is not in a single place is a fair reflection of the current position. I will therefore discuss with colleagues whether there is anything we can do, for example through the BDBC planning webpages, to bring the various sources of information into a single place where residents, Councillors and applicants can navigate it from a single starting point.”

I am grateful for this positive response. If the planning department is able to do this, they will make life clearer when future applications are received in terms of what is, or is not, seen as good practice and therefore what is permissible.

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WOODBURY ROAD PHONE MAST TURNED DOWN

26th August 2022

I have today (26^th August) received notification that the application for a phone mast in Woodbury Road has been refused by the Borough’s Officers. Their letter reads:

“The applications and representations received have been considered.The applications and representations received have been considered and permission has been refused for the following reasons:

“ 1  The proposed development by virtue of the scale, height and positioning in close proximity to residential dwellings, the highway, pedestrian crossings and on a footpath at this point within the street scene would form an unsympathetic form of development that would not positively contribute to the character and appearance of the area and would be to the detriment of visual amenity.  The development is therefore contrary to the National Planning Policy Framework (2021) and Policies EM1 and EM10 of the Basingstoke and Deane Local Plan 2011-2029.

“ 2  The proposed development would cause obstruction to the footpath by virtue of the placement of the cabinets and pole on the footpath to the detriment of the public and its users. The development is therefore contrary to the National Planning Policy Framework (2021) and Policies CN9 and EM10 of the Basingstoke and Deane Local Plan 2011-2029.”

This is good news and reflects the objections submitted my colleagues and myself. I was particularly concerned about the obstruction of the footpath and the proximity to housing.

This will not be the end of the story, I’m sure. We want to see 5G rolled out. I am willing to work with the applicants to find alternative locations that might be more acceptable to the community.

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WELL DONE AGAIN, BRIGHTON HILL SCHOOL

25th August 2022

The GCSE results are in and Brighton Hill School students have done really well.

I commented recently on how Brighton Hill has turned from a school that attracted a fraction of its capacity into one that has a waiting list. That means that parents judge it to be a good school.

That judgement has been borne out by OFSTED inspectors who rated the school Outstanding in three of the four categories measured. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating – we expect to see that sort of judgement backed up by good exam results.

It has been. Brighton Hill’s students have scored excellent grades in GCSE exams, recording the best results in its recent history.

Now here’s an impressive fact. For the past two years, GSCE grades have been assessed by teachers and, overall, the assessed grades came out higher than those achieved at exams. This year, the results from actual examinations were expected to fall overall nationally. But Brighton Hill’s exam grades were higher, not lower.

Getting higher grades in real examinations than the assessed marks from the last two years is a great achievement.

Now the numbers: students achieving five standard passes (level 4+) including English and Maths has gone from 51 per cent in 2019 to 68 per cent this year.

Those with five strong passes (level 5+) have gone from 25.9 per cent in 2019 to 49.3 per cent in 2022.

59 per cent of all GCSE grades achieved at the school were level 5+.

And, bearing in mind that the students were being taught for a large part of the time under Covid restrictions, I see these results as remarkable.

Brighton Hill went through a terrible patch in the past and that contributed, I am sure, to parents sending their children out of Basingstoke to Winchester and Alresford. Chris Edwards and his team have turned it round and the people who benefit are the students, achieving these great results.

So, well done to the students, and to the staff. This is what Basingstoke needs!

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WATER LEAKS PROBLEM – MORE AMBITION NEEDED

24th August 2022. Updated 30th August 2022

My article in the Gazette correspondents’ page about water leaks prompted a resident of Harris Hill to contact me about a very visible problem there, that has been running water down the nearest drain for over four weeks.

The person who contacted me was both worried and offended by the length of time it is taking to fix the problem. Water was bubbling up out of a meter cover in the pavement. It’s wasn’t a trickle – it as a ‘water my garden’ flow. And it never stopped: it wasted water 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Like many families, we tried to conserve water during the hot spell. We ran our garden water butt down to empty, and we collected kitchen-sink water in a bowl for transferring to our watering cans, attempting to keep the garden alive.

Thousands of families in this area undoubtedly did the same. But our collective efforts were probably negated by this one unfixed issue.

I viewed the Harris Hill leak. I contacted South East water. Yes, it was logged. I checked and, yes, it was on their website. And someone had been out. They painted a blue cross on the pavement access cover.

But for a over a month the water was leaking and wasting.

Update: It’s now scheduled for completion on 8th September.

In the meantime another leak has been reported in the Holmes Close area. The context is that we constantly hear national horror stories about how much water is lost through leakage and here’s an example, in the heart of our community.

In response to my publicising the problem, South East Water have said that they will be investing millions over the next two years and they have ambitious plans to halve the amount of leakage by 2050 to 44 million litres a day.

I can understand that the curing of leaks is expensive, and that setting targets has to balance cost against achievement. But I am sorry, I find the target of halving leakage in 28 years underwhelming. It sounds complacent and it sounds as if the industry is managing for failure.

Success, for me, would be to have a target date for leaks to be eliminated. Surely that’s what the industry regulator should be telling them to do?

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PHONE MAST UPDATE – BUCKINGHAM PARADE APPLICATION REJECTED

19th August 2022

I am pleased to report that the Officer decision at Basingstoke and Deane has been to REFUSE the planning application for a phone mast in Buckingham Parade, Kempshott. The reasons given correspond closely to the objections that I, and others, submitted:

“The site is located within a visually prominent location, in close proximity to residential dwellings, the highway, pedestrian crossings and areas of open space, and by virtue of the proposal’s scale, height and appearance, the proposed development would not positively contribute to the streetscene, to the detriment of the visual amenity of the area.

“The development is therefore contrary to Policy EM10 of the Basingstoke and Deane Local Plan 2011-2029 and the National Planning Policy Framework (2021).”

I had also put in about the blockage of the footpath and the hazard caused to the visually impaired.

So, what happens next? The applicants could appeal, but the ruling looks pretty powerful to me. I am hoping that they will now engage on identifying a site more acceptable to the community.

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IT’S ONLY A LUMP OF STONE …

18th August 2022

… but actually, it is a grade 2 listed item and part of Basingstoke’s heritage.

I was contacted recently by Mr David Hawkins who brought to my attention that the milestone on the A30 near to the golf course development was in danger of being destroyed. He supplied photographs.

I looked into this and my understanding is that

• the milestone is actually a grade 2 listed item
• the access road to the Golf Course is slated to go near the milestone site, so something will need to be done to preserve it
• the utility works alongside the A30 appear to have dislodged and half buried the milestone, bringing this matter to a head
• the Bloor Homes contractors (KAMM) have recognised the need to preserve the milestone and are offering to store it
• following my enquiry, the Borough Council has its planning enforcement team on the case, as there are processes to go through before a Grade 2 Listed asset can be interfered with.

My big fear was that someone would send along a digger, scoop all their spoil into a lorry and take the milestone with them. I contacted senior officers in both the Borough and the County Councils to ask that the milestone be saved.

The current situation is that the soil around the milestone is being cleared and a box created to protect it. For now, therefore, the risk appears to have been mitigated.

But it does raise a question that needs to be addressed. This is the second occasion within a few months when the work of utility companies has causes avoidable problems for the community. The laying of a new water main up the A30 resulted in a heap of spoil so large and so badly positioned that it caused safety concerns for motorists and precipitated an emergency road closure. And now this, where even a moment’s thought should have told the contractors that burying the milestone was the wrong thing to do.

These instances lead me to believe that there needs to be greater supervision of the utility companies’ work and I have written to the Chief Officer at Hampshire to make this point.

In a town where too much heritage has been destroyed, I find issues like the milestone important, which is why I applaud the work that David Hawkins did in bringing it to people’s attention.

In the scheme of things, it may seem a minor matter, but we have lost so many fine trees and fields in this area that even a small victory becomes an important statement that the digger must not be allowed to rule our lives completely.

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THE ECONOMICS OF HOUSING GROWTH IN BASINGSTOKE

15th August 2022

My challenge to the Borough Council on cutting the rate of housing growth has provoked a massive response on Nextdoor and elsewhere and I thank everyone who has made constructive points.

One of the counter-arguments is (I paraphrase) ‘build more homes to bring prices down’. That’s the supply-side economic argument, but in my opinion it won’t work! We simply can’t build enough homes in Basingstoke to bring prices down. I offer two reasons:

Firstly, if we plan for more homes than Basingstoke needs, people from outside the Borough will buy them and move here. To paraphrase the film, ‘build them, and they will come’. By building too many homes, we increase the demand as well as the supply, and that negates the supply-side solution.

Secondly, if the developers really thought that they were building so many homes that they were forcing prices down, they would simply stop building them! They have paid market rates for the land, and will not wish to see their new-builds selling below the prices they calculated.

So, supply-side economics is not the answer. But demand-side economics is posing its own problems.

Anyone who has studied economics will know that demand is defined as the wish to buy something, coupled with the ability to pay for it. For most people, the ability to pay for the house they wish to buy is determined by the availability of an affordable mortgage. With interest rates going up, mortgages will become less affordable. We are, I am sure, heading for a slowdown in the housing market, caused by higher interest rates, and developers will respond by slowing their build-rates.

The answer we seek to Basingstoke’s house building rate lies firmly in the hands of the local politicians. I believe the case for a lower target build in the next local plan is well made, and imperative from a planning perspective. But here’s a final thought: if the Borough Council keeps the annual target number high in the teeth of a housing slow-down, it will end up missing its new targets, because the developers will not build what they cannot sell. Once again, the Borough will be accused of not having a five-year housing land supply, putting us right back to where we are now.

Sensible planning imperatives coupled with economic factors therefore combine to make the case for lower housing targets in the Borough’s emerging local plan. Let’s hope that the Borough Council recognises that.

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MORE ABOUT THE ROLL-OUT OF 5G

10th August 2022

I think everyone one will agree that having reliable and high capacity mobile phone networks is part of the essential infrastructure to support a town like Basingstoke. The industry is now moving to 5G, which promises even more speed and throughput, and I welcome that. It will pave the way for new innovations such as autonomous cars and remote healthcare technologies – really exciting.

New planning applications for new 5G phone masts are being submitted. Two are in my division, sited on pavements, which I think should be avoided if possible, and I wrote about this here on 27^th July.

The Chairman of Dummer Parish Council this week sent me (thank you) an old press release from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It reminded me that, when 5G started, we were talking about 5G repeaters potentially being mounted on street lights, traffic signals and other roadside assets.

I liked this idea when it was first mooted and continuer to like it now. I would like to know why why it is not happening. I have therefore written to the County Council’s officers asking whether any good practice emerged from a competition that the government launched in 2021. I have also asked whether Hampshire’s contract with a private contractor for street lights is an asset or a hindrance should we want to go down this road fo using streetlights and other ‘furniture’ to host the repeaters.. I would hope that the streetlights contract wouldn’t get in the way.

Using existing assets to host 5G repeaters could speed up the rollout and hopefully avoid more planning arguments about the siting of masts. It would therefore be interesting to know whether the current applications for masts are being driven by technical considerations. Or, are the 5G companies finding it difficult to get the information they need to identify suitable alternative structures in terms of location, physical dimensions, proximity to the street or access to power?

If we are witnessing an example of inertia, because ‘it’s all too difficult’, we need to cut across it. A faster 5G roll-out, with fewer masts to argue about, must be the best solution for our communities.

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HALVE BASINGSTOKE’S RATE OF GROWTH

7th August 2022

Now, here’s a challenge. I believe that the Borough Council should aim to halve the target rate of growth for Basingstoke.

The Council’s current local plan says we should build 850 homes per year. That is far more than the Borough needs to cater for its natural growth.

I checked the births and deaths in the Borough for 2001 – the people who will now be young adults and coming onto the housing market. There were 1,772 births and 1,111 deaths – a difference of 661. This document provides the information: https://documents.hants.gov.uk/population/TrendBDFactsheet-BasingstokeandDeane.pdf?_gl=1*1hzrj4b*_ga*ODM1ODY1MjQ3LjE2NTY1NDI0MzM.*_ga_8ZVSPZWL5T*MTY1OTUyNjQzNS4xLjAuMTY1OTUyNjQ0MC4w

Assuming that the majority of these 661 aspire to live with partners, that will give rise to a housing requirement in the region of 330. Even if we add in factors for ‘singletons’, people finding partners from outside the Borough, people living longer and relationships ending, that will give rise to a need, I estimate, in the range of 400 to 450. That’s half of the current local plan figure.

One key difference is that I am assuming a target of zero nett migration for the Borough. That is, of course, a policy decision and a crucial change of direction. Since the 1960s, Basingstoke has built more homes than it needs, encouraging people to move here. It started with the London Overspill scheme but nett inward migration continued even after that ended, because planners looked at historical trends and thought that was what Basingstoke needed.

That thinking is flawed. Looking at historical trends and projecting them forward is like steering the ship by looking at the wake. You don’t actually watch where you’re going.

For those of us who are watching, the result is clear enough: we are sacrificing too many of Basingstoke’s green fields to build, in effect, other districts’ housing. We are helping our neighbours to avoid building for their populations and allowing their homes to be built in Basingstoke instead.

I invite you to look at the green field near you that is being built on and to consider – half of those homes are for people from outside the Borough.

And then think of all the green fields that are being destroyed in our Borough.

And then think of how many more are at risk.

The recent census indicates that Basingstoke’s birth rates are falling, but we have one of the highest growth rates in the country. How can that be? Because, if we build more homes than we need, people will move into them from outside the Borough. This is a great place to live.

The Borough Council must respond to this. It needs to produce a new local plan based on lower numbers and make the case that there is an exceptional circumstance at play here in Basingstoke, which is that the historical rate of growth has become unsustainable. We have done our bit, our housing has got ahead of our infrastructure, and now we need a period to consolidate.

In that period of consolidation there is a job to do. Much of our infrastructure needs to be rebuilt. We need a new hospital. We need an improved town centre. Our roads, even after massive investment will struggle with the traffic of tens of thousands of new homes. Our industrial sites, like Basing View, need regeneration. Our secondary schools are spread illogically through the town. This is an area of water shortage yet there are no plans for reservoirs to see us through dry summers. The sewage treatment plant is struggling, and damaging the River Loddon. And so on.

The national planners will hope that Basingstoke continues to over-provide. It makes life easier for them and for Councils that are not providing the homes they need. But Basingstoke’s planners are elected to defend the interests of Basingstoke people, not other Councils’.

I believe the case for a slow-down is made and it is vital. I know that many Borough Councillors think the same. The question is: will they have the courage, now, to do what is right for the Borough?

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BASINGSTOKE’S PUBLIC TRANSPORT CONUNDRUM

4th August 2022

Planners need to think twice before placing too much reliance on public transport to solve the traffic problems of tens of thousands of new homes in Basingstoke. With bus usage falling, relying on ‘modal shift’ may be a risk too far.

The COVID lockdowns produced a long-lasting impact on people’s use of public transport, one that planners need to recognise. But I fear they are not, which means that a striking contradiction is developing in our planning process. Unless they respond, the planners will be taking a huge risk with Basingstoke’s future.

Basingstoke is slated to take thousands of new homes over the next decade, most of them in the South West of the Borough. But will we get the roads to support the resultant traffic? I fear not: the planners are instead talking about ‘modal shift’, which means moving people out of their cars and into public transport.

It sounds good. But can they actually achieve that? I am not so sure, because recent history is not on their side.

During the pandemic, use of public transport fell dramatically, and the bus company in Basingstoke reports that the recovery looks to have topped out at about 75% of the pre-COVID levels. That will make many services uneconomic.

The reasons for the decline in bus usage are easy to analyse:

·        shopping patterns changed, with more on-line ordering taking place.

·        working patterns changed, with more people working from home or in ‘hybrid’ mode and, most importantly,  

·        attitudes changed. People are now much more cautious about mixing with others, including on public transport.

Even the painfully high costs of fuel are not persuading enough people to use public transport. Neither have the bus company’s major investments to make its vehicles cleaner and more comfortable overcome the trend.

The planners are pinning their designs on a greater use of public transport aided by a ‘Mass Rapid Transport’ link, which appears to be a not-yet-defined bus route. No western by-pass. No new North / South road. Just a hope that public transport will come to the rescue when the indications are that it can’t.

To make matters worse, while the planners are crossing their fingers and hoping, the budget-makers are simultaneously reducing support for public transport. Council budgets are tightly stretched, and all non-statutory expenditure is being reviewed. So, as spending on public transport goes down, expectations from it are being ramped up.

For Basingstoke, the risk of relying on ‘modal shift’ is huge. There are tens of thousands of new homes being planned for Southern Manydown and its adjoining fields, all of which will generate traffic.

If bus usage continues to stay low, the planning authorities will have to wake up to the fact that ‘modal shift’ is not the answer. Let’s hope, for everyone’s sake, that they realise this before they build the homes and not after.

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LEARN THE LESSONS OF KENNEL FARM

1st August 2022

The Anaerobic Digester sits just across the M3 at the ‘real’ Kennel Farm off Garlic Lane. It has received a bad press for some years as a source of odour pollution, with complaints coming from its immediate neighbours and sometimes from residents of Hatch Warren and Beggarwood as well.

The current operators, Biogen, acquired the facility in 2018, and have made significant investments to bring it up to their safety, environmental and operational standards. This included a complete design change and replacement of the biofilter that had been installed by their predecessors. Biogen’s investments improved the situation but, sadly, complaints about odour leakage continued to be received.

Biogen are now embarking on another round of improvements, including:

• The installation of a scrubber. This will reduce the potential for what they call ‘fugitive emissions’ from the storage tanks and reduce the odour loading on the biofilter. As part of the install, an improvement will also be made to the recirculation water discharge to allow this to be directed directly into the gas tight raw waste buffer tank.
• A full overhaul of the engine that burns the gas that the plant generates, which will see it out of operation for 5 weeks whilst it undergoes its 60,000-hour service (this was due to start on 25^th July 2022).
• In accordance with Environment Agency requirements, an independent engineer will verify the integrity of the process tanks on site, which can only be undertaken when the tanks are empty.
• Biogen will also utilise the time that the engine is off to empty the digesters of sediment caused by things such as eggshells and fruit stones that do not readily degrade. 
• The internal heating coils that were installed by their predecessors will be replaced with external heat exchangers. This allows for improved maintenance and assurance of optimum digestion. 
• The two digesters that will be emptied and then inspected will be fitted with brand new gas tight membrane roofs.

I don’t claim to understand all these technical changes, but I applaud Biogen for sharing this information and, above all, for making the investment.

I see a lesson to be learnt here. When the original planning application was considered, the applicants assured everyone that there would be no odour leakage and that the Anaerobic Digester would be a good neighbour. The sentiment at the time was that was a ‘green’ project, everything in the garden was rosy and anyone who opposed it was standing in the way of progress. Since Biogen took over, it has become apparent that the garden was far from rosy and there were better ways of designing and building the plant.

The planning Officers who advised the County Council’s Regulatory Committee were in no position to check the technical soundness of the solution. How could they know?

It strikes me now, though, that many good-practice opportunities have been identified, and if future applications for Digesters are submitted, they should be measured against the improved designs implemented here.

The residents of this corner of Basingstoke have had to put up with too much, for too long. At least let us learn the lessons of Kennel Farm, and make sure it doesn’t happen again, somewhere else.

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