We need your help to protect Micheldever by once again saying NO to new settlements in the countryside
Please make your voice heard
Deadline Wednesday 14th December
Winchester City Council has published the next draft of the new Local Plan, the ‘Regulation 18’ draft. This is the all-important policy document that when adopted in 2024 will provide the blueprint for development in our district up to 2039.
Last year, in response to the Council’s earlier consultation, hundreds of people from across the District told the Council in no uncertain terms that an option to build one or more large new settlements in the countryside was the worst option and should be rejected.
The overwhelming opposition to this option means the Council is now taking forward a development strategy for the new Local Plan that rejects new settlements, and prioritises the use of brownfield land for development. Your efforts to make your voice heard mean that the threat of an 8,000 home new town at Micheldever is greatly diminished, and we would like to thank the many supporters who answered our appeal last year.
But we need your help again.
O’Flynn Group, the promoters of the new town at Micheldever, have stated that they will continue to promote the new town throughout the Local Plan process. With the billionaire owner of the land at Micheldever, John Magnier, behind them, they have vast financial resources and have mustered a crack team of professionals to lobby for their scheme.
The Council is asking residents for their views on the new Local Plan draft, and we need you to make it clear to them once again that large new settlements in the countryside, including the proposed new town at Micheldever, are as unacceptable to Winchester’s residents today as they were last year.
The deadline for making your response is 14th December.
Although the Council will take responses sent in via email or by post, they are keen that people respond to the consultation using their online form. As the Regulation 18 Local Plan draft includes a large number of issues, this is quite a complicated process. The Council will welcome your views on any of the issues in the draft, but we are urging all our supporters to at least respond to the housing section, and we have provided the following guide to help you:
1. Go to www.localplan.winchester.gov.uk
2. Click where it says ‘Click here’. This takes you to a new page.
3. Click where it says ‘here’ at the end of the first sentence.
4. This takes you to the Local Plan page on the Winchester City Council website where you can read all about the Local Plan process and the consultation.
5. Scroll down to the blue edged box at the bottom of the page and click on ‘Online Survey’. This takes you to the first page of the survey, which is about Privacy and publication. Scroll down to the bottom and confirm you are happy for your response to be published. Click on ‘Continue’.
6. Fill in your details on the next page and click on ‘Continue’ at the bottom.
7. On the next page is a list of all the issues covered in the Regulation 18 Local Plan draft. Click on the circle next to ‘Homes for All’.
8. This takes you to the Homes for All response page where there is a list of the 18 policies in the Homes for All section. Click on the circle next to ‘H1 – Housing Provision’.
9. This takes you to the H1 - Housing Provision response page. Just below the title is a box where you can read the Background to the Homes for All section of the Regulation 18 draft. Click on the page and you can scroll down to read the whole section, at the end of which is Policy H1 itself.
10. When you’ve read it, scroll down the page further to answer the question on whether you support Policy H1.
11. Click on the circle next to ‘Yes, I support the policy’. Ignore the heading in the box below about answering no, and type into the box something similar to this:
I very much welcome the Council’s decision to reject Approach 3 and also the statement in Homes for All that this approach’s promotion of large-scale greenfield development is at odds with the Council’s priorities of maintaining the viability of existing centres, reducing travel and carbon emissions, and making best use of brownfield land. I urge you to maintain this position, despite the pressure from developers.
12. If you want to respond to any of the other policies in the Homes for All section, or to any of the other sections, scroll down to the next question and click on one of the top two circles. Otherwise click on the bottom circle next to ‘I would like to go to the end of the survey and submit my response’.
13. Complete the next two pages (these are straightforward) and submit your response.