Micheldever on list of new town sites

O’Flynn Group, the developer of Micheldever Station new town, has confirmed that they have submitted their proposal to the government’s New Towns Task Force.

The government announced last week that 100 sites had been submitted to the Task Force. Sites on the list must be able to deliver 10,000 or more homes. The government plans to announce the 12 chosen sites this summer.

Speaking to the Hampshire Chronicle, Dever Society Chair Tessa Robertson said, “The Dever Society is not surprised by this news. We know the developers of the new town will take every opportunity to promote their flawed proposal, despite it having been turned down over and over by Winchester City Council on planning grounds.”

But as many of our members will remember, we have been here before, the last time central government decided that a series of new towns could help solve the housing crisis. A large new town in this location was submitted by the previous developer of the scheme to Gordon Brown's Eco-town initiative and was soundly rejected, primarily on transport grounds, with the Department of Transport concluding that there were “very significant issues” concerning rail congestion and trains at capacity, and that the new town would cause major traffic congestion in the M3 area. Water quality issues relating to two important chalk streams, the Rivers Dever and Test, were also quoted as reasons for rejection. None of these issues has changed since this assessment; if anything, they have worsened.

Cllr Martin Tod, the LibDem leader of Winchester City Council, called the plans unsustainable, saying to the Chronicle, “I’d have been amazed if they hadn’t submitted it. But just submitting it to the Government doesn’t make it a thought-through plan or a good idea. There’s a reason we didn’t put it in our emerging Local Plan – and that it wasn’t in the last Local Plan – and that the last Labour Government rejected it without shortlisting in 2008. The Department of Transport and Highways Assessment of its traffic impact was brutal: I’d be surprised if an updated assessment wasn’t even worse. At a time when our rivers and wildlife face huge challenges, building on remote green fields in the Dever valley – a river catchment that flows into the Test – makes no sense.  It’s just not sustainable.”

Local ward councillor Stephen Godfrey told the Chronicle, “The simple matter is Micheldever remains an isolated, rural settlement, with very poor connectivity to jobs and amenities and infrastructure. The prospect of 5,000, 6,000, 12,000 homes depending on the avarice of those involved is just a shocking threat to our rural community.”

But with the government determined to solve the housing crisis, large numbers of new homes are going to be built across the country. These should be built in places with the greatest need and the lowest impact, and that is not Micheldever new town, which has been rejected over and over again for 35 years on planning, transport and traffic and environmental grounds. We will be working hard to ensure that these reasons are taken into account and that Micheldever continues to be rejected as a site for a large new town.

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