3,000 houses on Popham Airfield - This time we need you to email Basingstoke Council
Thank you to everyone who emailed Winchester City Council in response to our appeal to you on Saturday. If you haven't done it yet, there's still time!
Now we need you to object directly to Basingstoke Council. The deadline for responses is midnight on Monday 4th March.
Why are we asking you to object?
Basingstoke Council's new draft local plan not only contains the proposal for a 3,000 house 'garden village' on Popham airfield, it also includes a new development of 7,500 houses east of the village of North Waltham which they are calling 'Southern Manydown'. That makes 10,500 more houses to the southwest of Basingstoke. This will have a huge impact on our area.
Please email Basingstoke Council and object to these two developments.
We have put together some points below that you might like to use in your response. You don't have to include them all - you may just want to use the ones you agree most strongly with.
If you can, please try and use your own words.
Often councils count identical objections, however many there are, as one objection, when what we want is to get as many objections counted as possible.
Email your response using the special form.
Basingstoke Council has produced a form to use when making your objection. We have partially completed the form with the relevant reference numbers - you can download it by clicking here. When you've completed it, you need to email it to local.plan@basingstoke.gov.uk.
Here are the points you might like to use:
• No consultation with local residents.There has been no consultation with the residents of Micheldever Station or other nearby villages in Winchester District, despite the fact that the proposed development at Popham airfield is only metres away from the boundary with Winchester District, and is on the edge of the village of Micheldever Station.
• An increase in carbon emissions. New settlements in the countryside, such as Popham ‘Garden Village’, are the most carbon intensive option and therefore put at risk the council’s carbon neutrality goal.
• An increase in car use. New settlements in the countryside encourage car use. Research has shown that even in new settlements where there is a single railway station, the majority of journeys are made by car.
• An increase in traffic. 10,500 new homes at Popham and Manydown South will undoubtedly cause significant increases in traffic on the A303, A34 and A33, as well as on local roads such as Overton Road and Larkwhistle Farm Road which are completely inappropriate for such an increase in traffic.
• Impact on Micheldever Station. The increase of commuters from the new development at Popham airfield would have a major impact both on the railway station and the village of Micheldever Station itself. The small station car park is full every weekday, and the problem of people parking on the roads and on verges has only been partially solved through the designation of most of the roadsides as residents’ parking.
• Not enough capacity on the railway line. The current service at Micheldever station is one train per hour in each direction. The track is unable to support the need for the increased traffic and additional trains currently projected, let alone an increase in the number of trains that would be required to provide an attractive service for a rise in passenger numbers caused by development at Popham.
• Costly infrastructure. A new settlement on Popham airfield would need brand new infrastructure in the form of roads, lighting, schools, healthcare, public transport, sewage, electricity, water and other utilities and so on. This is costly in both investment and environmental terms. By far the more sustainable option is therefore to develop at existing settlements, where the already available infrastructure can be used and expanded if necessary.
• Destruction of greenfield sites. The local plan draft states that the focus of growth will be in Basingstoke Town and yet the vast majority of the new housing development proposed in the draft is on greenfield sites, not in built up areas or on previously developed land.
• Popham is too far from Basingstoke's urban areas. The proposed ‘garden village’ at Popham is on its own in the open countryside and far removed from the town's urban areas. We fail to see how this location can possibly be seen as environmentally sustainable or desirable.
• The developments would erode the important green gap between Basingstoke and Winchester. The urban sprawl that will occur if Popham ‘garden village’ and Southern Manydown go ahead puts at risk the future of the important green gap between Basingstoke and Winchester.
• Unacceptable impacts on the River Test. Popham airfield is in the catchment of the River Test, one of the finest chalk streams in the world. The replacement of grassland and woodland by tarmacked and drained surfaces would cause run-off, allowing sediments and pollutants to contaminate watercourses and groundwater that supply the Test.
• Water supplies. The availability of water supplies in the area is of concern. There is restricted groundwater available over much of the area and the River Test is already being damaged by water extraction.
• Unacceptable impact on biodiversity and nature conservation. Building new towns in the countryside destroys and degrades biodiversity. Habitat fragmentation, the disturbance caused during the decades construction would take, the tarmacking over of soils and the air, noise and light pollution and disturbance caused by such developments, all have disastrous impacts on biodiversity.
• Unacceptable impact on protected areas. There are two Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINCs) in or adjacent to the Popham airfield site as well as areas of ancient woodland. The SINCs, ancient woodlands and protected species would all be adversely affected during the construction phase and by the development itself. In addition, Micheldever Spoil Heaps SSSI, described by Natural England as “of quite exceptional botanical importance” is a short distance to the west and would be similarly affected.