Call to landowners to help future plans
Test Valley Borough Council is calling on landowners to help identify areas that could be used for future housing, shops and businesses.
The Strategic Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment (SHELAA) is a technical document that provides information on land that is available around the borough. This document is then used by the authority as an evidence base when creating the Local Plan and will be available to communities looking to produce neighbourhood plans in the future to identify sites which could possibly be suitable for development.
The council is issuing a ‘call to sites’ and asking landowners to help the authority identify sites that may be suitable and available for housing use or other economic purposes.
The SHELAA helps the council with information on sites for potential housing, economic development, self-build housing and Gypsy and Travelling Showpeople.
Planning portfolio holder, councillor Nick Adams-King, said: “This is a very important piece of work for the council and will help us identify potential sites where future housing might be built in the borough.
“While we’re of course not at the stage of allocating land for certain purposes, this is the first step in looking at how and where this could be done in the future. Before we do so we will of course be consulting with the public and our councillors to ensure everyone has a say over where new development takes place. We are very proud of our housing delivery in Test Valley and we are always looking ahead to see how we can maintain and improve upon those high standards.”
The review is being conducted to ensure that as well as new sites, those that have been previously identified by the council are still available, and to update information.
Details of the SHELAA review and submission form are available via www.testvalley.gov.uk/SHELAAReview2019.
The eight-week submission period began on September 6 and the closing date for submissions is 12pm on Friday, November 1. Submissions can be emailed to planningpolicy@testvalley.gov.uk or posted to Planning Policy, Test Valley Borough Council, Beech Hurst, Weyhill Road, Andover, SP10 3AJ.