Destruction fear as 4,700 homes plan is approved by Eastleigh Borough Council

9:43am Friday 14th October 2011 in News Photograph of the Author By Bethan Phillips, Reporter

Botley Parish Action Group Botley Parish Action Group

CONTROVERSIAL plans to build 4,700 homes on Hampshire countryside will destroy communities, residents warned last night.

They lined up to beg councillors not to go ahead with proposals that will see thousands of new houses spring up around Eastleigh borough over the next two decades.

More than 150 people packed out the public gallery at Eastleigh council’s civic offices and around a dozen people spoke against the plans.

Councillors voted by 30 to eight to adopt the plan.

Strong opposition was shown against the plans to build 1,400 homes at Boorley Green at Botley Park Golf Course.

One representative from Botley Park Golfers urged the council not to destroy “a jewel of a course”.

Sue Grinham, from Botley Parish Action Group, urged councillors to reconsider building homes at Allington Lane, which earlier this year was offered as an alternative to the development at Boorley Green.

She said: “Building at Allington Lane will not destroy or consume an existing community. If you do this development at Boorley Green our lives will suffer. Please do not rip this community apart.”

Peter Ford, chairman of the Aviary Residents Association in Eastleigh, spoke to oppose plans for 1,300 homes at Chestnut Avenue. He presented the council with more than 300 letters of objection that he had collected from the Aviary estate.

He said: “The strategic gap between Southampton and Eastleigh will be destroyed if you allow this development.”

Other large planned developments include 1,400 homes at Stoneham Park and 1,000 on land around Woodhouse Care, near Hedge End.

Councillors were meeting to discuss the Draft Local Plan, which includes plans for up to 9,400 homes – half of which are on greenfield sites – in the next 18 years.

Council leader Cllr Keith House said the borough needed between 500 and 550 homes a year over the period to meet housing needs. He said the plan was a starting point for debate and a public consultation would now begin.

He added: “This isn’t a tablet of stone saying here it is. This plan will evolve over the course of the coming months and the next year. There are difficult decisions to make but it is important that we face up to our responsibilities.”

Now a full public consultation will be held up to the end of the year. A Government planning inspector will also have to approve the plan before any building goes ahead.

Comments(24)

Sovietobserver says...
10:05am Fri 14 Oct 11

So Eastleigh Borough councillors want to destroy all the green countryside around them as well as upset their residents. I suggest they build a number of family planning clinics on their brownfield sites instead and to get the residents to control their breeding habits as a priority. All problems solved.

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BMWDellboy says...
10:08am Fri 14 Oct 11

Not in my back yard .... I can tell you that for a fact.

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BMWDellboy says...
10:12am Fri 14 Oct 11

Sovietobserver wrote:
So Eastleigh Borough councillors want to destroy all the green countryside around them as well as upset their residents. I suggest they build a number of family planning clinics on their brownfield sites instead and to get the residents to control their breeding habits as a priority. All problems solved.
The clinics could also control Eastleigh's interbreeding problem, lol

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Sovietobserver says...
10:29am Fri 14 Oct 11

BMWDellboy wrote:
Sovietobserver wrote: So Eastleigh Borough councillors want to destroy all the green countryside around them as well as upset their residents. I suggest they build a number of family planning clinics on their brownfield sites instead and to get the residents to control their breeding habits as a priority. All problems solved.
The clinics could also control Eastleigh's interbreeding problem, lol
As there are few jobs to support mortgages anymore, no doubt a large proportion of the new homes would be in the social / rented sector. Without any local employment one can imagine all those living for example in some boring isolated housing complex near Botley would only have their own means to entertain themselves all day. So without control they will just go forth and multiply. Something for the established residents to look forward to.

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G0Rf says...
11:25am Fri 14 Oct 11

they should be built on allington lane and build a M27 J6.
The roads around botley and hedge end are already stuffed with traffic.

The roads around botley and hedge end will end up like the a32 in fareham and gosport!

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thedavie says...
12:21pm Fri 14 Oct 11

? perhaps it is money
4700 homes paying say £1000 each in rates is nearly £5 million
so I expect not to get a rate increase but a reduction over the next few years

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thedavie says...
12:23pm Fri 14 Oct 11

? perhaps it is money
4700 homes paying say £1000 each in rates is nearly £5 million
so I expect not to get a rate increase but a reduction over the next few years

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Kerryp says...
12:59pm Fri 14 Oct 11

Good news for the traffic at Botley, Hedge End and Bishopstoke through to Eastleigh.....

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janw83 says...
1:10pm Fri 14 Oct 11

Only a small percentage of any of these new build sites will be for social housing the rest will be private sale which means that it will bring people from outside the area so these new builds will not help the borough of eastleigh but will push it to breaking point. And stupid remarks about inbreeding only goes to show why this country is in the state it is,this is a serious matter that should be treated as such

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tagman says...
1:52pm Fri 14 Oct 11

Does anyone else think it is a coincidence that one hotel & golf course is being built on while Eastleigh Borough Council are investing millions into a hotel with a golf course at the Rose Bowl?

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George4th says...
2:17pm Fri 14 Oct 11

Good news!
We need homes, full-stop.

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Sovietobserver says...
3:04pm Fri 14 Oct 11

janw83 wrote:
Only a small percentage of any of these new build sites will be for social housing the rest will be private sale which means that it will bring people from outside the area so these new builds will not help the borough of eastleigh but will push it to breaking point. And stupid remarks about inbreeding only goes to show why this country is in the state it is,this is a serious matter that should be treated as such
By mentioning 'people from outside the area' do you mean Poland, Czech republic, Slovakia, Hungary etc.
I would'nt think many of them would be granted mortgages to buy properties , nearly all of them are working for minimum wages even if they are lucky enough to find any employment locally or otherwise.
If perhaps you are thinking that any of previously London based capitalist elite would want to move to the area I think you need to start living in the real world.
Eastleigh has thousands on its housing waiting list, these people are not at present sat in their own properties, they are in large overcrowded households, temporary housing, caravans, and bed and breakfast accomodation , many with no prospect of employment.
With the employment situation as it is house ownership is obviously going to go into decline.
So it only leaves somebody to finance thousands of units of social housing , there is no alternative.

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janw83 says...
3:26pm Fri 14 Oct 11

No I was not talking about people from abroad I was referring to the fact that where there is huge new builds it attracts the movement of people from one part of the country to another, i agree we do need more homes for the people on waiting lists but there are other ways of doing this, were you aware of the amount of empty properties that there are in Eastleigh and Winchester..1200, and more in Southampton, that would house more people than the small amount of social housing that would be produced by the building on the green belt in chestnut Avenue, by the way I do live in the real world, I don't own my own home I rent, but I also know that the real reason for a lot of these new builds is the revenue they would bring into the councils and developers pockets.

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chrisdemeanour says...
3:40pm Fri 14 Oct 11

thedavie wrote:
? perhaps it is money
4700 homes paying say £1000 each in rates is nearly £5 million
so I expect not to get a rate increase but a reduction over the next few years
This is probably about right, although it is probably 4700 times £1200 in council tax, nearer £5-6 million.
When you have, in my view, corrupt councillors with extremely vested interests deciding planning issues, this will never change. These greedy, self serving, robbing scum extort hundreds of thousands in wages that they award themselves from council tax payers money, along with bonuses and all the other fiddles, expenses etc. In my opinion, they care not one iota for the views of the people and If I had my way they would be in prison, along with the majority of politicians. Guy Fawkes was the good guy!!

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jojotgirl says...
7:02pm Fri 14 Oct 11

RESULT!!!! NIMBY I hear you cry??? **** right! : ))

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Cookiecutter says...
9:08pm Fri 14 Oct 11

Everyone losers and a few gain when the agricultural lands are removed from food growth.
Realters gain. Land sales gain. councils gain a few more tenants paying into the coffers. Construction workers gain.
EVERYONE loses from the growth of fresh foods. The farmer has a short term gain in that the sale of the land goes back into a smaller growing field of crops until the weather turns nasty and the crop is lost or the insurance costs go up again and again until again the farmer just loses faith and quits. So now everyone is scrounging to get food which we pay more for to be brought in from other countries where the growing practices are less stringent and people pee on the crops causing Listeria and other hepatitis problems.
China takes more risks to grow foods and produce milk.

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Poppy22 says...
2:39am Sat 15 Oct 11

I'm still not convinced we need new homes. Look at Whiteley - it was built on land previously without housing and a huge proportion of the people moving there were from outside the area (eg NATS employees). Why do councils think they have to keep bringing in MORE business and people when the roads and infrastructure are much as they were in the 1970's?! The pollution in this area must be awful now - especially with the M27 nose to tail most of the day and local roads often gridlocked - so it's amazing any of us want to live here anyway! Enough is enough. Stop over-populating this area and let people from outside the area go elsewhere - eg where there are more brownfield sites which can be built on.

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Mark Lancaster - English Democrat says...
11:03am Sat 15 Oct 11

First may I ask that readers forgive me for not using a made up name!
As for all of you who leave comments I have one question: – Do YOU vote habitually for the 3 larger parties? If YOU do then go and take a good long look at YOURSELF because problems such as the current planning crisis/scandal are YOUR fault. Yes, YOUR fault!
Very often YOU have the opportunity to vote for alternatives, people who are brave enough to stand up to the current political cartel. Instead YOU sit behind your computer screens and try to be clever in criticising the people YOU put in power.
Instead of being a little bit braver YOU vote for the party that YOU think is least furthest away from YOUR point of view.
YOU vote for the same old rubbish and get the same old rubbish. What did YOU really think was going to happen when YOU voted LibLabCon?
Heaven forbid that YOU should get out from behind YOUR commuters and join a party on the campaign trail or check out just what the other parties like the English Democrats stand for.
YOU have a choice; stand up and be brave for once in YOUR life or sit there and watch the houses grow!

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eeyore43 says...
12:05pm Sat 15 Oct 11

9000 homes within Eastleigh Borough another 3000 homes to be built just outside Botley (Winchester district) 6000 at Wickham (Fareham). Yes, we need new houses, but please get the infrastructure right in the first place! We will be in even more traffic chaos in the next few years.. Mark my words :(

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janw83 says...
1:37pm Sat 15 Oct 11

Yes some of us are to blame, but that doesn't mean that we have to bow down and accept it, I have set up a petition and if anyone is against building on the green belts then sign it don't just talk about it, let us see if people really care or will we see that apathy reigns supreme in Eastleigh Borough...click on this link http://t.co/XNhfDCCj

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janw83 says...
1:42pm Sat 15 Oct 11

I have just visited GoPetition and found the following page very interesting:

http://www.gopetitio
n.com/

Regards janw83

petition to stop building on green belt land

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Torchie1 says...
7:55pm Sat 15 Oct 11

I wonder how many people complaining about this development were looking forward to the Waterside coming to a standstill with the Dibden Bay container berth traffic being discharged on to one road or one railway line? I recall the NIMBY accusation coming regularly from the Southampton side of the water before the DP plans were scotched.

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Condor Man says...
4:20pm Sun 16 Oct 11

It's about time Eastleigh fulfilled its obligation to build more houses. There's ample land around West End, Hedge End, Hamble and Bursledon to build more houses. It will need to be a mix of rent, part buy and full purchase properties to stop the developments becoming ghettos as we sadly have in Southampton.

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townieboy says...
6:15am Mon 17 Oct 11

Will make a new community not destroy one. The Eastern Community has exhausted most of Southampton it needs to spread. Welcome them with open arms as Southampton residents have.

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