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Council boss: ‘I’m not for Barton Farm’
WINCHESTER council boss George Beckett has voiced his opposition to the building of a giant housing estate on green fields at the edge of the city.
The Conservative council leader admitted he had said Winchester might need to loosen its "corset" if it was to prosper economically - and not become a "museum."
But Mr Beckett said that did not mean he backed controversial plans to build 2,000 homes at Barton Farm, currently the subject of High Court appeal.
He said: "The decision could be taken out of our hands but in the present circumstances I am not in favour of building on Barton Farm and I never have been."
Labour group leader, Cllr Peter Rees, who is standing down, has previously publicly backed the scheme, which would include about 800 affordable homes.
The Lib-Dems are currently opposed.
Meanwhile, latest figures show the level of new house building in Hampshire has exceeded government targets.
The figures offer fresh hope for campaigners fighting to save Barton Farm from the bulldozers.
The 208-acre greenfield site is earmarked as a reserve major development area.
Based on the number of new homes built last year, county planning chiefs say there is "no compelling justification" to release any of the reserve sites identified in the structure plan.
However they say the number of low-cost affordable homes needs to be "substantially increased".
District and city councils are being urged to use their planning powers to "maximise" the number of affordable homes built in their areas.
The annual monitoring report showed 31,801 new homes were built in Hampshire between 2001 - 2006, five per cent more than the number required by the Government Office of the South East.
Moreover, the level of house building between 2006 - 2011 is forecast to exceed the government target by about 12,000 dwellings or 44 per cent, according to a report to the joint advisory panel of the strategic planning authorities of Hampshire, Portsmouth and Southampton.
At present, there are no official targets for the number of new affordable homes to be built in Hampshire.
But the draft South East Plan proposes 25 per cent of new homes should be social rented housing and 10 per cent "other types of affordable housing".
According to the joint advisory panel report: "This target is very challenging and if it is to be achieved in Hampshire there will need to be a significant increase in the amount of affordable housing built."
District councils currently vary in the proportion of housing in private developer schemes they say must be affordable, from 40 per cent in Winchester and Gosport to just 15 per cent in Rushmoor.
In Fareham, sites of up to 25 dwellings do not need to provide any affordable housing, while in Winchester the threshold is 15 in the city.
However the report says many new homes are built on sites which are less than these thresholds and the overall percentage of affordable housing achieved is "much lower" than the proposed new target.
In Winchester, just 344 affordable homes were built between 2001 - 2006, 16 per cent of the total.The council with the highest proportion of affordable homes achieved in this period was Southampton with 1,161 or 29 per cent. Eastleigh was the lowest at 280 or 13 per cent.
Gavin Blackman, of the Save Barton Farm Group, welcomed the latest figures on the total number of new homes built.
He said Barton Farm was one of the "green wedges" of countryside that formed part of Winchester's unique landscape setting.
Cala Homes has appealed to the High Court to build a major housing estate on the site east of Andover Road.
4:52pm Wednesday 2nd May 2007
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