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Local plan consultation closes as council sets out next steps
More than 1,000 people responded to Test Valley Borough Council’s (TVBC) draft local plan consultation, which will help to determine how the area will be developed over the next 17 years.
The consultation closed on Friday 5 September, and the council will now review all the comments received from the public, businesses, local groups and organisations.
The council had to amend its previous draft plan after central government vastly inflated Test Valley’s housing figure almost overnight, following an update to the National Planning Policy Framework. This means the authority must now deliver 78 per cent more homes than it had initially planned for.
And because the change was implemented so suddenly, TVBC no longer meets its five-year housing land supply. This impacts its ability to defend itself against inappropriate development, and means that developers that can submit applications quickly, even if they are of lower quality or in unsustainable locations, could still get planning permission.
Test Valley must now identify enough sites to deliver 15,878 new homes over the next 17 years, which has led to some difficult decisions about where the new homes could be built.
Since launching the consultation, TVBC has received notice that the development site proposed at Appleshaw, and part of the proposed development at Weyhill, have now been withdrawn by the landowners.
The council has also received confirmation through the consultation that the playing fields at Danebury School, which the developer had proposed to relocate, are now not available for development as part of the proposed Stockbridge site.
In light of this, the council will need to consider its next steps, including assessing the potential to still deliver homes in these areas, looking at alternative sites, and reviewing other wider options to meet the borough’s future housing needs.
Leader of Test Valley Borough Council, Councillor Phil North, said: “I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who responded to the consultation. We recognise that we have had to make some incredibly difficult decisions about how we can accommodate the government’s huge increase in our housing target, and we know some of those decisions will be challenging for our communities.
“We recognise there has been a change of circumstances for three of our proposed sites. Our proposals were based on what we knew at the time, but we respect the decision that those landowners have made, whatever the reason.
“We will now review all the comments received and determine how best to take the local plan forward and defend against speculative development. We will continue to listen to the views of our communities and parish councils and keep them informed along the way.”
Councillor Phil Bundy, cabinet member for planning and building, added: “We know some have suggested that we should take more time exploring different options and approaches, but we are having to respond to the government’s astronomical overnight increase to our housing target. And if we want to avoid developers submitting speculative applications for poor quality developments, on completely inappropriate sites, without the appropriate infrastructure in place to make them sustainable, then we have no choice but to act quickly. That doesn’t mean the plan hasn’t been carefully crafted and thoroughly considered. But it does mean that we have had to make compromises along the way to avoid the worst of all evils.
“We are grateful to everyone who took their time to review the draft plan and share their feedback, and we will now use that to further refine the draft and shape a document that plots the best way forward as we navigate this most challenging scenario set by government.”