Winchester Local Plan Review - TrustNews MAR 06
Members may know that in December the City Council decided to accept the Inspectors’ modification of the Local Plan to allocate additional reserve sites for development. These are proposed to compensate for any shortfall of land allocated in the plan to provide the requisite number of houses during the plan period. This requirement is monitored regularly and there is no indication of a likely deficit in Winchester, where the original housing land allocation has been augmented by additional ‘windfall’ sites becoming available and thus making any need for reserve sites highly improbable. However, it is in Winchester that the Inspectors have seen fit to allocate the largest site at Pitt Manor Farm to provide in excess of 200 houses. The site was considered during the formative stage of the plan but, for many good reasons, it was rejected. These reasons included its location on the urban fringe and the consequent erosion of Winchester’s setting as well as the traffic implications for the local road network. The only location, where there might be a shortfall of housing land during the period of this plan, is in the major development area West of Waterlooville. City Officers consider that Winchester is the only sustainable location for dumping the deficit.
The Trust Council has considered the implications of objecting to this modification but believes that there are sound reasons for the City Council to reject it. We urge Trust members to register their objections in support of this view. Even if the Pitt Manor Farm site is not required at this stage, once it is included as suitable for development, it will be vulnerable in future.
Comment Forms entitled Implementation of Local (Housing)Reserve Sites Policy are available from: Winchester City Council, Avalon House, Chesil Street, Winchester SO23 0HU 8am - 6pm Mon - Fri. or by telephone to Strategic Planning 01962 848193, also from County Libraries or on line at the Council’s website:www.Winchester.gov.uk from which you can download copies of the form and see the supporting papers. Comments must be returned to: Head of Strategic Planning at Avalon House (address above) or on line by 6 pm on March 9th.