D-Day for district masterplan (From Hampshire Chronicle)

D-Day for district masterplan

8:30am Thursday 8th December 2011 in Alresford By Warwick Payne

CIVIC chiefs will meet tonight (Thursday) to decide whether to back calls for 11,000 homes in the Winchester district.

If approved, it is likely to make Barton Farm harder to defend, but give more protection to Bushfield Camp.

Several other major schemes across the district will also hang in the balance at the special full council meeting, which is expected to run late into the evening.

It is being held at the guildhall to sign off the district’s 20-year masterplan, which first surfaced in 2007.

Many public workshops and meetings have been held since then, along with crucial council hearings.

But this evening is when councillors must decide if they back the plan or not.

The situation was outlined by council corporate director Steve Tilbury in a meeting with business leaders on Tuesday (December 6).

“If you have strong views about anything in that plan, you must tell somebody before Thursday evening,” he said.

If approved, there would be little chance of amending the plan ahead of it coming into force next year, he added.

If it stalls, officers have warned that developers will have a stronger case for building wherever they like.

Sites already in the firing line include Barton Farm, which could provide 2,000 homes and a new primary school.

The scheme by Cala Homes was refused earlier this year by Eric Pickles, and has twice been blocked by the council.

The developer is now seeking to challenge Mr Pickles’ ruling in the High Court.

However, the masterplan will concede that unless other housing land comes forward, it might have to be sacrificed.

Gavin Blackman, who chairs Save Barton Farm Group, said: “Winchester City Council will vote this Thursday to bury Winchester under a concrete development the size of a London suburb riding roughshod over local peoples’ wishes.”

He urged as many residents as possible to attend this evening’s meeting to lobby the council.

“Winchester needs a proper referendum of its people to decide Winchester’s future,” said Mr Blackman.

The plan will give more protection to the former Bushfield Camp army base, which is also a greenfield site.

Having lain empty since the 1970s, the council had suggested using it for a hi-tech Knowledge Park.

If approved, the masterplan will shelve that scheme on the grounds that it is not financially viable.

The document will also call for 4,000 homes in Winchester itself and 7,000 elsewhere in the district by 2031.

Many will be in the southern parishes such as Whiteley, with less in the areas classed as ‘market towns’. This includes Bishop’s Waltham, where 500 homes are proposed during the next two decades.

The decision now rests with the 57 members of the council. The ruling Tory group has 27 members, the opposition Lib Dems the same, with one Labour and two Independent members.