Oof, this is big, the whole plan, including 3 x 6 storey flats:
Full masterplan doc: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WpZxHCxJTseHopGx_ImXN1rOxbdUAWy7/view
Full masterplan doc: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WpZxHCxJTseHopGx_ImXN1rOxbdUAWy7/view
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Paul’s back with more:
Flooding on Allington Lane and One Horton Heath Update 2
Below is my objection letter to the current One Horton Heath plans. Despite meeting with the Chief Executive of Eastleigh Borough Council in November 2020, and reviewing the application material in detail, I do not believe that Eastleigh Borough Council has brought forward a satisfactory application. My objection to the plans centre on three principal issues which are set out below. I will also be raising these concerns in Parliament on Monday.
Excessive housebuilding
The Council continues to build above and beyond the assessed housing need or the so-called ‘Government target’. As you are aware, Eastleigh Borough Council has a target of 694 homes per annum plus a 5 per cent buffer[1].
In the last three years (2017/18 to 2019/20), Eastleigh Borough Council’s assessed housing need or ‘target’ would have been 2,082 or 2,187 with a five per cent buffer. In the same three-year period, the number of new dwellings delivered by Eastleigh Borough Council was 3,278[2]. This means the Council has sanctioned over 1,000 additional dwellings to be built in the area, 49 per cent more than our ‘assessed housing need’ even including the five per cent buffer.
Given the over-delivery in previous years, I would expect to see a reduction in future years but this is not the case. The latest information published by Eastleigh Borough Council on its five-year housing supply (July 2020-June 2025) shows that the Council intend to approve 667 extra dwellings, equating to 18 per cent above target[3].
In light of Eastleigh Borough Council’s record and the proposed scale of One Horton Heath, my suspicion is that the Council will far exceed the 18 per cent target it is currently forecasting.
Overdevelopment of Horton Heath
In light of the figures presented in my previous point, there is a clear opportunity to reduce the size of the development at One Horton Heath. The sheer scale of new properties proposed is enormous and represents unsuitable and inappropriate overdevelopment of green fields around Horton Heath. The current population of Horton Heath is approximately 3,454. When complete, the population living in the 2,500 residential units at One Horton Heath will likely exceed the size of the village. This provides an indication of the size of the development being put forward by Eastleigh Borough Council
The village of Horton Heath is small and peaceful, and this development would destroy the character of the area while also undermining amenity for those residents that live there. Furthermore, the development also removes the obvious strategic gap between Horton Heath and Hedge End, a principle that is well established in the Council’s planning policies.
Flood risk and environmental considerations.
The area to the north of the One Horton Heath site, where the proposed link road will join Allington Lane is already susceptible to flooding and the scale of the proposed development could make these problems even worse. Both of the tributaries that meet where the flood risk issues occur run through the development site so surface and groundwater run-off from One Horton Heath will have a direct impact on the associated flood risk on Allington Lane and arguably increases ferocity and regularity… This point is endorsed by the Environment Agency.
Moreover, the stated aim of Eastleigh Borough Council is that the site should deliver an ‘environmental net gain’. In relation to the watercourses, the One Horton Heath development does not return the current habitat to their original state so improvements to the watercourses running through the site are essential to achieve this objective. This in turn will also address the flood risk issues.
So far, Eastleigh Borough Council’s position as the developer and applicant suggests nothing should be done in relation to the flood risk and watercourses, because the site is already susceptible to flooding. This is not acceptable and falls well short of what would be expected of a private developer. It is even worse when we consider this is the response of our local council. It also directly contradicts the stated aims of the project:
“We want to protect local wildlife and preserve Horton Heath’s character as much as possible. Our ambition is that One Horton Heath will create a net gain in biodiversity. To achieve this, we’ve partnered with ecologists to tell us how we can protect natural habitats, green open spaces and invest in the site’s waterways” [emphasis added].
To conclude, I believe the current masterplan should be rejected as it represents excessive housebuilding, overdevelopment which will undermine the character of Horton Heath and it fails to appropriately mitigate the associated flood risks. The fact that Eastleigh Borough Council are acting as the developer should not detract from the Council’s responsibilities as a local planning authority to act in the best interests of residents. I strongly encourage the Council to reject this application for the reasons that I, and other local residents, have set out.
[1] EBC, Calculation of Five-Year Housing Land Supply, November 2020, link
[2] MHCLG, Live Tables on housing supply: net additional dwellings, Live Tables 122 and 123, link
[3] EBC, Calculation of Five-Year Housing Land Supply, November 2020, link
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Nick Couldrey posts on facebook:
One Horton Heath will strengthen local ecology and biodiversity. Farmers are good at growing grazing on the fields for their livestock; and keeping everything else off, which makes for little biodiversity. In contrast, the hedgerows and watercourses are ecologically important. That is why the buildings will be built on the fields. The hedgerows and watercourses will be widened and enhanced to create ecology corridors for wildlife, with stronger natural water features and many hundreds of new trees too.
As Cllr Nick Couldrey is one of the Councillors who will be deciding the application, does his count as pre-determination of the planning application?
And politicians wonder why they are so despised?
There is some truth in this statement, though it’s well hidden away and overwhelmed by the general mendacity of the message.
His main assertion - that OHH will “will strengthen local ecology and biodiversity”, he has been roundly, and rightly, condemned. It’s a transparently logical nonsense, and he must know it. I can only assume he was testing the waters to see whether anyone actually believed it.
Yes, farmers ARE good at raising their livestock, feeding them on what grows on their field - but at the cost of extensive use of herbicides and pesticides (“keeping everything else off”) and yes, this does “make(s) for little biodiversity”. PLEASE READ Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” (1962) Silent Spring - Wikipedia
and Conor Mark Jameson’s “Silent Spring Revisited” (2012) to understand how this chemical-led approach has decimated the natural world.
Despite the farmers’ herbicides and pesticides, there is still life on those fields he is so excited to tarmac and concrete over. It is just suppressed. Remove the poisons, and the biodiversity will bounce back. The land destined to be overlaid with Crowdhill Copse estate was left for two years and turned into this:
Now, of course it’s all concrete, brick, tarmac – and cats.
As to ‘new trees’ – while these are welcome, it will take centuries for them to develop into true replacements for those they have cut down. And we don’t have centuries. Every tree that is cut down is another small nail in the coffin of the human race.
Also, the “hedgerows and watercourses ARE ecologically important”. Yet, modern agriculture and development have ripped out tens of thousands of miles of hedges since 1945 (Hedgerow loss.). The EU - remember them - were until recently, paying farmers to leave fields and wider field margins uncultivated (fallow) to permit biodiversity to recover. It remains to be seen whether the UK will continue this policy. It is good to see that their importance has (at least in form of words) has been acknowledged in discussions of One Horton Heath (OHH).
Sir John Lawton in his 2010 report - “Making Space for Nature” (https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130402154501/http://archive.defra.gov.uk/environment/biodiversity/index.htm) flagged up the rapid fragmentation of the natural landscape, and called on Government to restore biodiversity and establish ‘ecology corridors’. Mr Couldrey is at least aware of this tag. But it hasn’t escaped anyone’s attention that the first thing done for OHH was to rip out a couple of hundred yards of hedgerow at Hedge End, and to fell up to 40 mature oaks along Allington Lane.
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Someone on Facebook asked the one Horton Heath team a question about the development, here’s the response which gives an idea of scale, I thought it useful to share here.
Thought I’d share a reply from One Horton Heath team when a asked about the development. Below is their reply… enjoy.
We direct members of the public to the website as it has been designed specifically to include a full variety of information (such as Frequently Asked Questions), as well the latest status of the development (which is still in the early stages). By providing the public with all information, rather than selecting specific information to send in one email, we are empowering the public to make their own informed opinions. It simply is not possible to provide the full scale of information that is available and condense it into one email.
What exactly will be in the Local Centre is not yet fully known, and the Masterplan will seek flexibility so the exact uses can be decided at the time the local centre is constructed. This is the best way to ensure that we fully meet the needs and demands of the community, rather than trying to plan for something that may change over future years. Our intention for One Horton Heath is to contribute to a community, not just to build a housing estate. We’re also conscious that there are limited facilities within the existing village, and that there is an opportunity to meet this need through development. Although these proposals are generally focussed on ‘housing,’ there is a huge array of other facilities and amenities proposed as part of this project, many of which will be situated within the Local Centre. We’re actually intending to consult the public specifically on this aspect during October 2020 – this will be 5 published on our website.
We expect the Local Centre to include the following (although we’d welcome any views on other uses that are needed or should be included – hence referencing the Public Consultation in the previous email):
- Cafes
- Shops
- Small-scale business premises
- Community building(s) and spaces
The centre of the site is the most important part of our development proposal and is being carefully planned to ensure that the ‘Local Centre,’ Primary School, Sports Pitches and Play Facilities all act as one central hub for the site – with all of the necessary facilities such as parking and access being planned and provided to underpin the success of this area.
The online planning application portal also includes extensive amount of informative detail, such as:
“Proposal of Local Centre (and supporting secondary local centres) comprising mixed-use residential/retail/leisure/community/employment/day nursery/food establishment uses; office, commercial and industrial uses; a Primary School; public open space including formal sports facilities and informal provisions; relocation of solar panels; key infrastructure and utilities provision including new roads, footpaths and cycle paths and improvements to the existing road junction at Fir Tree Lane/Burnetts Lane”.
As the development is in the early stages, it will be quite some time before building on the Local Centre starts and therefore these are proposals at this stage.
There is a wide range of information readily available to the public and by utilising these easily accessible resources, one is able to obtain answers to the many questions they may have.
With many thanks,
The One Horton Heath Team
Let’s hope it’s a better quality build than North Stoneham Park
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Off topic: I find it amusing that Allington Nursery complain about mess, noise and effects on wildlife…yet they sell fireworks to the public 
On topic: As long as people keep breeding, new builds are bound to happen. NIMBY won’t be heard at all.
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Just got my borough newsletter with news of this
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It would be interesting to see the minutes of that decision. I think they should show up here, unless someone knows better…
https://meetings.eastleigh.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CId=510&Year=0
I actually had a look down the new road the other day- my first impression was disappointment that there’s no properly segregated cycle lane connecting through to the station, and potentially Eastleigh the other way in the future. A shared cycle/pedestrian path is better than nothing but it seems like a bit of a missed opportunity.
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Lost amongst all the planning application documents for OHH lie proposed changes to existing road junctions in Fair Oak and Horton Heath.
Here’s a letter we recently had about the Allington Lane/Fair Oak Rd and Sandy Lane/Fair Oak Road junctions.
Looks like they want to ‘improve’ part of Fair Oak Rd and make it 4 lanes of traffic. I assume this must be due to the anticipated increase in traffic from OHH (as it is part of the planning application for OHH).
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