Dear Councillor,

7^TH DECEMBER FULL COUNCIL – 20 REASONS TO DEFER WHITEHILL- BORDON PLAN

You hold the future of some 25,000 people in Whitehill - Bordon and a score of nearby towns and villages in your hands.  Please don’t vote to accept this masterplan.  Its errors, conflicts and harmful proposals cannot be explained away. They would cause irreversible harm. Please heed people’s real fears and warnings.  We plead with you to defer consideration because important studies which may provide crucial evidence are still in progress, and because the plan is bad.

Whitehill Town, Headley, Churt and other bodies as far away as Wrecclesham oppose the plan in its current form, along with the National Trust, RSPB, Wildlife Trust and many others, including Hampshire County Council itself on transport.  Whitehill Town Council speaks for the town!

Any one of the following facts should be reason to reflect before votes are counted.

1.      90% of respondents to our survey reject the proposed scale of development.

2.      In EHDC’s recent consultation a majority were opposed.

3.      The area’s minor roads are totally inadequate to deal with predicted traffic increases.

4.      People presenting medical problems caused by heavy goods traffic pollution noise and vibration are increasing.

5.      The land required is unavailable.

6.      Playing fields, wooded areas and part of Hogmore Inclosure, a designated Site of Importance for Nature Conservation in town will be built over.

7.      One of the last and best farms in the area will disappear.

8.      High density housing will degrade the rural town character.

9.      Statutorily protected, internationally important heath land and wildlife will be destroyed.

10.   The present excessive air pollution will increase further.

11.   Increased traffic congestion will affect Liphook, Lindford, Standford, Headley, Blackmoor, Churt, Grayshott, Oakhanger and many other surrounding villages as far as Wrecclesham.

12.  Sites already allocated in the statutory Local Plan meet the District’s housing need without building a single house in Bordon.

13.  The present plan disregards capacity in order to serve vested interests.

14.  In the only EHDC consultation to include preferred size, people favoured 2000 homes.

15.  Some 550 people attending two public meetings at the Forest Community Centre, almost unanimously rejected the scale of expansion of the plan.

16.   Headley Parish Council’s formal objections to the ‘yellow circle’ and inclusion of Standford Farm have gone unreported and unanswered.

17.  No significant employers are prepared to come to Bordon. 

18.  The plan’s failure to link new job provision and housing will deliver a vast dormitory town.

19.  Scare stories, including the ‘critical mass, ’ MOD sell-off, unplanned development and worse conditions have no foundation whatsoever.

20.  The real alternative is a better plan, which the Town Council and people can support.

Imposing this plan will hurt thousands of people. It’s like blasting off in a moon rocket without any idea of how to land.  Don’t condemn people with little choice to ‘just put up with it.’ The Government says they will not support an eco-town where the community is opposed.  Let your conscience be your guide.

Steve Parsons

June 2010 Draft Framework Masterplan

BAAG Response to Masterplan and Supporting Supplementary Documents

BAAG Response Summary

BAAG object to the current masterplan for the following reasons:

§                There have not been any significant changes to the masterplan since the last round of consultation last year.  BAAG’s objections and concerns as set out in any previous consultation therefore remain.

§                The original ecotown criteria has been altered to achieve ecotown status for Bordon and Whitehill.

§                With the revocation of the South East Plan, the proposed ecotown housing figures are no longer a ‘target’.  Housing figures are to be tested and based on local need.

§                BAAG continue to contest EHDC in their definition of brownfield land.

§                The masterplan should seek to develop only the brownfield land for approximately 2500 dwellings, retaining the existing green infrastructure.

§                The masterplan is based on mitigation and not avoidance.  Avoidance of impacting on existing designated habitats, the existing open spaces and the surrounding landscape, separating Bordon from the surrounding villages, is best practice.  Avoidance occurs through locating development in the right places.  This could be achieved by reducing housing numbers.  This mitigation approach has a significant implication on the existing designated ecological habitats and the existing farmland outside of the parish.

§                The core baseline evidence base has not been prepared to enable a masterplan to be prepared.  This evidence base should include:

-   A strategic environmental assessment as part of the sequential approach to siting new development and to test alternatives;

-   reports as to how the military’s presence impacts on the population age statistics and use of services;

-   the completed transport and rail feasibility study;

-   a report on visitor numbers and those specifically to the SPA;

-   an assessment of electricity capacity;

-   an assessment of water cycle ;

-   an air quality assessment;

-   tree surveys and arboricultural impact statements;

-   the habitats regulations assessments.

Without these baseline assessments, the future of Whitehill and Bordon is not being planned, but marketed.

§                Without this evidence base, there is no further information or answers to the issues raised in the 2009 consultation.

§                Little is added by the draft masterplan to the Green Town Vision which set out the basic principles and guidance.

§                The scale of development results in the need to build on the existing green spaces within the town and therefore requires mitigation land to provide the open space requirements.  BAAG object to the inclusion of Standford Grange Farm to provide this mitigation.

§                The substantial increase in traffic flows, as set out by EHDC’s consultants, that the proposed ecotown will have on the surrounding network.  There is no recognition of government guidance on promoting development in the right locations to reduce the need to travel.

§                BAAG object to Bordon and Whitehill becoming a dormitory town.  It is in the worst possible place in terms of accessibility other than the car, with none of the social or physical infrastructure that the masterplan promises.  For example, EHDC’s consultants have advised that the railway link is unviable due to the population of Whitehill and Bordon and the surrounding villages.

§                BAAG contest the target figures set out in the masterplan for journeys made by public transport.  This objection is substantiated where statistics for other, larger settlements, do not meet the targets set out for Whitehill and Bordon.

§                BAAG have significant reservations on the supporting transport and consultation studies supporting the masterplan.

§                Until the Core Strategy and LDF policies have been finalised and adopted, it is not possible to draw or consider a masterplan. 

§                There is no immediate urgency to adopt the masterplan if land is not to be released until 2014 or later.  Furthermore, there is still no certainty that the MoD will be leaving.

BAAG Overall Summary

BAAG therefore contest firstly that Bordon and Whitehill is the wrong place for this scale of development and that the adoption of any such masterplan, without the completion of the evidence base is premature.

In addition to this, BAAG raise the following objections to the overall consultation process:

§                EHDC have abused their position in that they have promoted the scheme in a manner that resulted in a censure from the Advertising Standards Authority [ASA].

§                The timing of the consultation exercises.  The 2009 masterplan consultation period ran up to and over the Christmas period and the latest masterplan consultation over the summer holiday period.  This deliberate programming may have prevented many residents getting involved and giving this the due consideration required for this important proposal. 

§                The use of professional language within a document to be read by the public. 

§                In particular, at the Bordon Library, there were no posters indicating that the masterplan document was available for viewing.  When BAAG members requested to view a copy the staff were not briefed and were not aware of this document.  The masterplan document was not publicly visible or securely left on a table for viewing.

§                Through the lack of evidence base at the outset, the whole consultation process is uninformed and will result in consultation fatigue and disinterest. 

§                The whole of the consultation process is therefore inadequate and damaging.  The exercise is purely designed to tick ‘community involvement’ boxes and nothing more.

§                BAAG request the right to a referendum on the level of development within the ecotown proposals.  This will give the local population the opportunity to exercise their voice on how their local town should grow.

§                Despite the promotion of the significant new facilities for the town, it remains that in the consultation, there are more people against the current masterplan than in favour.

§                BAAG have the support of approximately 750 individuals who are concerned about the over development proposed in the ecotown masterplan.  This represents people within the town and the surrounding villages.  Grant Schapps has stated that if the scheme does not have local support, it will not go ahead.  These figures significantly exceed those set out in the consultation responses who favour the proposed ecotown.  How can we get through EHDC that this is no support for this level of development?

§                The Council’s claim to be developing plans with the community is a sham. The proposals are politically and financially driven.

Furthermore, BAAG would like to raise the following comments on general issues associated with the proposed masterplan for Whitehill-Bordon

General Issues.

The previous consultation on the MP for the W-B eco-town proposal took place during December 2009 and early January 2010 and sought views about the disposition and mix of the land uses proposed.  It was a map based exercise. 

That exercise was run in parallel with the East Hampshire Core Strategy consultation which requested views on a heavy document setting out draft policies and proposals across the whole of the District. 

The current August 2010 consultation exercise is centred solely on the master plan.  However unlike the previous "map based” exercise, this one involves 24 documents, many of substantial length, relating to the research and consultation exercises carried out in support of the eco-town.

EHDC’s consultation processes have been frustrating and unsatisfactory.

§                The consultation periods and closing dates, over Christmas and summer holiday periods, may have prevented many residents getting involved and have certainly imposed substantial disruption to families during  holiday periods.

§                The nature and presentation of the exercises is inconsistent and confusing.

§                The documentation is excessively lengthy with a great deal of jargon and specialist know how embedded within it.

§                Much of the documentation is very expensive to buy.  Many residents of Whitehill and Bordon without access to a computer cannot see it on line. Spending many hours at a library to read through all these documents is unreasonable. The largely aspirational and promotional format of the executive summary is inherently biased. It is not sufficiently accessible to attract a significant response. Nor is it objective in its language or selective content.

§                It is clear from the content and from questioning the planning authority’s representatives, that no material changes can be demonstrated from the earlier proposals. EHDC is therefore not responding to the views of consultees.

§                The December 2009 consultation results included many comments to the effect that “the consultation exercise was more marketing than fact” and “short on detail, full of aspiration and wish lists”.

§                In the current, June 2010 Draft Framework Masterplan Executive Summary EHDC accepts that the evidence base is still incomplete.  The plan contains no further facts or solutions in areas of key importance, such as transport, where around 60% of residents raised concerns in December 2009. The clear impression of using a great many more words to disregard genuine concerns can only spread further cynicism, consultation fatigue and disinterest.

BAAG finds the Council’s entire consultation process inadequate, damaging, and designed mainly to tick the “community involvement” boxes required for eventual adoption and central Government approval.

 june 2010