Reply to THIS thread
Start a NEW Talkback Thread
Talkback Home

East Hants district plan 2021 -2040 - Eric Benson (27th Dec 2023 - 15:46:57) Dear All On the 10th January EHDC’s Planning Committee is due to debate and approve a new version of a draft District Plan, now many years in gestation. You can find the link to all the papers on the EHDC website for that planning committee meeting. If approved a public consultation possibly likely to start later in January. As to be expected, it is many pages long, over 500 but a few salient points for Liphook can be found on pages 420 to 430 and includes for housing development areas not previously considered, ignoring sites the subject of the a current planning application - for instance to the north of the Haslemere Road opposite Devils Lane, to the west of the Headley Road by the bridge over the A3 opposite Hunters Chase. Something worth studying and possibly to consult your local district council about in the next few days? Regards Eric

Re: East Hants district plan 2021 -2040 - Joe (28th Dec 2023 - 07:19:49) Having read through this ( I may be wrong) but it appears the housing number for houses required in Liphook is 111. That is encouraging and miles away from the usual number trotted out regularly on here of 600.

Re: East Hants district plan 2021 -2040 - Eric Benson (29th Dec 2023 - 12:28:06) You may be right but there again this lesser number might suggest the EHDC and SDNP have finally got together to realise that the appropriate location for any major developments for Liphook, if any are needed, should be in the area within SDNP bounded by the Deer’s Hut, Bohunt School and The Links. This is big enough to accommodate the “shortfall” between the suggested numbers in the last draft plan and this latest version and gives the opportunity of a relief road from the Portsmouth Road south of the village across to the Longmoor Road, lands for new playing fields and clubhouses and a new (badly needed) surgery/health hub etc., etc. It does seem to me that to include lands further east along the Haslemere Road, beyond the current settlement boundary, is fundamentally wrong, pushing as it does people further and further away from village services. On the other hand the proposed site for the Headley Road opposite Hunters Chase is a logical one, given that it abuts the natural village boundary of the A3, so completing the previous years’ developments from Oakwood Park eastwards. Regards Eric

Re: East Hants district plan 2021 -2040 - Joe (29th Dec 2023 - 17:41:52) Do not think there is the collaboration you hope for Eric - the last draft plan by EHDC was only 120 after all. There will always be a few small windfall sites though and also before the plan is properly finished they need to guard against large sites getting approved quickly. The policies all seem to have changed and seem more in line with other local authorities now which is good. As far as I am aware the SDNPA do not have a housing number for the Liphook area.

Re: East Hants district plan 2021 -2040 - Ben Yately (2nd Jan 2024 - 17:22:10) There is no need for a relief road from Longmoor road to Station road; along with the now unnecessary doctors surgery nonsense, it is a pointless proposition. The main volume of inbound traffic is from the Headley road and Hill House Hill not Longmoor road. All the excuses and pipe dream infrastructure promises that have been peddled before as an inducement for a large housing scheme at Bohunt Manor are just as invalid now as they were when a change of use scam was proposed at Bohunt Manor some years ago. SDNP are not going to remove the nice sign that marks the start of the SDNP so that the owners of the land there can make a fast buck from a housing scheme that Liphook doesn’t need.

Re: East Hants district plan 2021 -2040 - Life resident (2nd Jan 2024 - 18:05:14) So we don’t need a relief road around the conservation square? . When the square gets closed we have a 10 mile trip to get from one side to the other and that does happen quite often. And the traffic coming in on the old A3 Portsmouth road is getting back to the old days because traffic from liss cannot get out on to the A3 at ham barn and more and more coming from the Milland area we have to look at the future ie ten years on what’s it going to be like . We desperately need that land behind Bohunt school developed for the good of liphooks future. We cannot go on as we are going shutting our eyes to the huge problem of the enormous amount of traffic coming through liphook .

Re: East Hants district plan 2021 -2040 - Resident (2nd Jan 2024 - 20:10:57) I appreciate it's a pre-submission plan, but my word it's a dreadful read. It waffles at length and references things that 'could' or 'might' be done with little to reassure a local resident that anything 'will' ever happen (apart from more housing). Lots of 'visioning' and plenty of statements about 'thriving'. Section 12 (Non-Policy Actions) was a light moment in an otherwise lengthy tome: - Additional seating in the The Square to 'complement ... heritage status' (a bench facing a 40ft lorry) - More speed bumps (bang goes your suspension) - Car parking with number plate recognition ($$$ kerching!) - "encourage more events" (sounds good, but enlighten me?!) - "Lobby for reduced speed limit ..." - "Provide advice to parishioners about lighting of homes ..." (paving the way for another green tax?) - "Re-introduce time limited parking on all roads to encourage pedestrian access to the shops" ($$$ watch out for that in the future!). More seriously, yes I will engage in the consultation before some bright spark suggests running for Prime Minister or the usual insult. But my point is this - is this Plan the best EHDC can come up with, as it is uninspiring?

Re: East Hants district plan 2021 -2040 - Eric Benson (3rd Jan 2024 - 12:32:40) The latest draft District plan is overlong and as the last correspondence suggests “somewhat waffly”. That said it is all we have to work with the moment, if it needs to be challenged line by line inn any public consultation, then so be it. That it cannot properly address for the purposes of planning consents and development the whole of the East Hampshire District area due to the overarching presence of the South Downs National Park is to be regretted. Unlike East Hampshire District Council, Bramshott and Liphook Parish Council for its neighbourhood plan is not so constrained. Hopefully its next iteration will adopt a proper parish wide approach and does not feel that it should be similarly limited. One of the advantages of developing the south-western quadrant of the village and establishing a relief road will be to reduce traffic running through the Square. Now, it is regularly clogged up morning and evening in term time with traffic going to Bohunt and Liphook junior and infant schools. For the future There is a plan in the public domain whereby the main access to Bohunt will be removed from the Longmoor Road and re-aligned through that suggested relief road network. Removing the traffic coming from the South, and to a degree the East, would help greatly the lives for those who live and work in the Square itself. As for new houses, if the population of this country is to continue to increase at the rate of three-quarter million souls a year, then homes will have to built somewhere, it is not desirable that everyone lives in dense urban situations. South Downs National Park does have a housing requirement, hard to determine as expressed to be over very wide area. If it can meet some of that with a sensible development in an existing conurbation which has space and capacity as Liphook does, that would be no bad thing. As things stand, the only way Liphook can expand to any large extent is to the south and east, so putting people and homes further and further away from village centre services. The development of the south-west quadrant would avoid that sprawl. A new combined surgery is desirable, particularly now that the two surgeries serving Liphook are part of one much larger group, itself established as a Primary Care Network with funds under its control. It would combine current provision under one roof, with more space for the diagnostics (being pushed out more and more from acute hospitals, in part due to costs in part due to technology), with admin staff in one place, treatment rooms of a proper size and specification, with easy access from the proposed roundabout at the end of Station Road into a suitably sized car park would be of great benefit to the village. I wonder if anyone from SDNP’s secretariat might be looking at this thread and might also respond accordingly? Regards Eric

Re: East Hants district plan 2021 -2040 - Life resident (3rd Jan 2024 - 14:45:21) Don’t hold your breath Eric . The SDNP people have never listened to the liphook community especially when the boundaries were set . They are supposed to protect conservation areas but in liphook they are doing the exact opposite by refusing to let the land behind bohunt be developed it’s unused farmland NOT park land totally ridiculous another case of big brother know’s best. You are not allowed on the land but if it was brought into use the Northcott developers will put in the rear entrance to bohunt and open spaces for general public use then all bohunt traffic will come on the link road thus longmoor road entrance could be shut making a huge difference to the square.it’s not rocket science just good forward planning.

Re: East Hants district plan 2021 -2040 - Joe (3rd Jan 2024 - 14:51:37) The surgery idea was pushed for in the past but the two surgeries could not get National Health Funding. That has not changed. All the owners of the Bohunt land are offering is some land for the building nothing else. Also Eric yes the SDNPA do have a housing number but they also decide to build their quota in the town settlements of Petersfield Midhurst Lewes etc . The main settlement of Liphook is not their planning area.

Re: East Hants district plan 2021 -2040 - Eric Benson (10th Jan 2024 - 16:01:22) A reminder to all that the East Hampshire DC planning policy committee meets this evening to discuss the latest draft for a District Plan. You can watch it if you want from the appropriate link on the EHDC website. The options before the committee are limited to (A) doing nothing or (B) placing the current draft plan, with all its clear and obvious faults, before the public in terms of a general consultation (at some cost). That consultation will probably start towards the end of this month. Regards Eric

Re: East Hants district plan 2021 -2040 - Joe (11th Jan 2024 - 04:52:03) Eric, no local plan will be perfect for every householder? It is never going to please everybody. In the case of our own neighbourhood plan the criticisms have overwhelmingly been from the potential developers in the area who hope to have the plan rejected because their development sites were not included. It is probably the same in the case of EHDC’s local plan. They are not the householders who are going to vote on the plan as they do not usually live in the same area. If the local plan process is too delayed the government would take it over and that would benefit no local people.

Re: East Hants district plan 2021 -2040 - Local (11th Jan 2024 - 11:06:57) Joe I think you’re not quite right as regards the neighbourhood plan most of our community ie the local people made their views very clear as to where they wanted development and infrastructure by a mile Bohunt Manor came out top . The liphook community have told the powers to be many many times what they want but to no avail.

Re: East Hants district plan 2021 -2040 - Joe (11th Jan 2024 - 12:47:32) Local I do not think you are right when you say “ most “ of our community - most do not want any new houses at all let alone 600 plonked opposite station road, or indeed 600 anywhere in Liphook. The Quota figure for the Liphook area in the proposed local plan is 100 or thereabouts and they have spread that figure around Liphook. The EHDC figure cannot be used in the SDNPA area, as Bohunt land is not in the planning area for EHDC so it is pointless telling EHDC to build there isn’t it?

Re: East Hants district plan 2021 -2040 - Local (11th Jan 2024 - 13:27:52) No Joe that’s what the neighbourhood plan is all about WHAT people want not what the national parks people want. If houses have to be built in liphook then they should be put where we get the best for our village ie infrastructure etc regardless if that’s in the park ( which it should never have been) . Not at places like the chicken farm which would dramatically increase traffic through the square. We need to fight the people that make these stupid rules that have no idea about liphook. The most important thing about development in liphook is to conserve the conservation square by taking the enormous amount of traffic away if that means fighting our corner about a disused piece of land then so be it .

Re: East Hants district plan 2021 -2040 - Joe (11th Jan 2024 - 14:53:27) Local, the Neighbourhood plan have never been empowered to allocate 600 houses. They have not been given a housing number at all. The “ ring road “ you dream of had never been in the plans anyway put forward by the developer- it is merely an access road for residents and would more than likely be a private road. Who would want to pay a premium price for housing in the Park and have a bypass thundering past?

Re: East Hants district plan 2021 -2040 - Local (11th Jan 2024 - 17:57:59) Well joe you must have missed the meeting when the public and developers were invited to put forward their plans . The Northcote developer showed their plan with a road coming from the roundabout in Longmoor road up to the boundary of Bohunt and Bohunt said they would carry it on to the roundabout in Portsmouth Road. And Northcote was asked by the school if they could have land for outside classrooms they said no problem as there would be open spaces for the public to use for recreation overlooking the wet lands . So if we only got 50% of their promises that would be 100% more than anyone else. As said the most important thing is saving our square it’s not about how many houses or building in the park we are going to have a lot of houses in the next few years so we must try and get the best deal for liphook not the National park we have an enormous amount of National park land around this area so there should be no problem with being sensible about it . The National Park people are pledged to safeguard conservation areas which they are not doing in liphook.

Re: East Hants district plan 2021 -2040 - Steve miller (11th Jan 2024 - 18:21:22) Joe As far as I recall, the concept of a link road between Longmoor Rd and Portsmouth Rd was first floated by the WS Atkins report which was commissioned by HCC highways as a part of their input into the planning application for stage 2 of the Lowsley Farm development. At that time the impact of this development on the square had been raised as a potential issue and there were some ideas being tossed around about modifications to the road layout around the square that seemed to satisfy nobody. I suspect that the land owners sized on this as an opportunity to unlock planning permission on the national park land but in the event HCC just pushed the problem back under the table no doubt at least partly because there was never any public funding available for any of the options flagged in the report. Presumably the landowners might consider funding at least part of such a road if development seemed achievable but, even ignoring the whole debate about the national park, it would seem very unlikely that they could get away without this road being used as a partial bypass of the square.

Re: East Hants district plan 2021 -2040 - Avenue Resident (11th Jan 2024 - 19:09:31) No different to the avenue being used as a ring road through two housing estates and passing schools. It’s quite obvious that land should be developed for liphook we desperately need a road around the square.

Re: East Hants district plan 2021 -2040 - Steve miller (11th Jan 2024 - 21:59:28) Just as an aside, I understand that Richard Northcott died recently. Given his wide ranging property and estates portfolio, it will be interesting to see what impact (if any) that this has on future plans for the part of the land involved in this long running question.

Re: East Hants district plan 2021 -2040 - Joe (12th Jan 2024 - 01:14:07) Yes local I was at the same meeting- and wow wee a developer has said they would let some of their land be used as an outdoor school if they can build 600 houses well the same goes on in Radford Park currently there is a forest school and there is no need to build six hundred houses just to get a forest school. You keep being scared into thinking these 600 houses are needed? Only 100 according to the planners so how many extra cars would these 600 houses bring with them ? A bypass just invites more traffic. If you read the prospectus from the developer it reads more like a private estate road.

Re: East Hants district plan 2021 -2040 - MJR (12th Jan 2024 - 13:10:39) The discussion on the development of the SDNP including a so-called relief road through the Bohunt Manor and Northcott Estate has been rumbling on for many years. The links below show the BBC Broadcast on 9th July 2013 where the proposed developers chaired a public meeting at the Millennium Hall youtu.be/-NS09IJ-ttw youtu.be/1_FmCt8aymw The response at the meeting from the attendees was wholly in favour of not supporting the proposed development. On 9th July 2015 the South Downs National Park Authority subsequently refused a planning application to build houses on the Bohunt Manor estate [see reference SDNP/14/06426/OUT] Since then, there have been several schemes from proposed developers to develop the site including the construction of the so-called relief road between Longmoor Road and Portsmouth Road. Several traffic studies have shown that most of the traffic entering The Square flows to and from Haslemere Road to either Longmoor Road or Headley Road. If the so-called relief road was constructed the traffic travelling along these roads and using the so-called relief road would not relieve traffic through The Square. This is because at the termination of the so-called relief at the end of Station Road, the traffic to Haslemere would have to turn up Portsmouth Road and enter The Square at the junction near the old Lloyds Bank, being the only suitable point to resume their journey to or from Haslemere. Similarly, traffic from Haslemere would enter The Square and progress down Portsmouth Road to enter the so-called relief road. The option available for traffic to progress to or from Haslemere via Station Road and Highfield Lane following the tortuous turning via the railway bridge is not viable. The SDNP website www.southdowns.gov.uk is a useful source of information for the National Park which we are so lucky to have on our doorstep.

Re: East Hants district plan 2021 -2040 - Eric Benson (12th Jan 2024 - 14:22:32) The latest draft of the East Hampshire District plan was approved by the policy and planning committee of EHDC on 10th January. It will be going to public consultation from the 22nd January, you can find out about this on the EHDC website. There will be five public consultation events, one of which will be in Liphook on 7th of February 3 30 to 7:30 PM. Regards Eric

Re: East Hants district plan 2021 -2040 - Avenue Resident (12th Jan 2024 - 20:00:58) MJR your post highlights the total inadequacy of EHDC in planning for the future. If they had stood firm when the wimpy plan was put in in longmoor road and made them put in the link between headley road and longmoor road which HCC had recommended then the link to Portsmouth road would have made a huge difference. Especially a rear entrance to bohunt school. If you live in the avenue you can see that it is being used as a rat run and sometimes it’s so bad any emergency vehicles would never get through. But EHDC don’t care about liphook their planning is totally atrocious.

Reply to THIS thread
Talkback Home