LITTERPICK
A big thank you to all who spared a couple of hours to join our recent litter pick. We were delighted to be joined by about 20 volunteers including a handful of younger helpers, with our smallest litter picker being just 2 years old! The village is looking much tidier as a result, so thank you to all who helped.
OAKDOWN FARM WAREHOUSES PLANNING APPLICATION
After numerous objections from North Waltham and Dummer residents, the Oakdown Farm Warehouse application was taken to the Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council Development Control Committee.
North Waltham Parish Council, alongside Dummer Parish Council and CAGE were in attendance to once again voice our firm objections. However, despite our best efforts, we are sorry to report that the Committee voted in favour of the application (6 votes for, 3 against and 1 abstention). The final decision came down to visual impact, as this was the criteria in which the Inspector at the Planning Inspectorate (highest level of appeal) upheld the appeal last time and the planning Officers stated had been mitigated this time. In effect all other objections around need, traffic, light pollution, noise were secondary and immaterial.
Despite the disappointing outcome, we would like to thank all residents who have taken the time to submit objections to the warehouses over the years and encourage you to continue to voice your concerns over growing development in the area. The next challenge the Parish Council and village face is contesting the proposed development in and around North Waltham as put forward in the Basingstoke Local Plan Update and likely to increase with the introduction of new housing targets being imposed on the borough by central government. The Parish Council is engaging with Basingstoke and Deane and continues to lobby to maintain a significant strategic gap around the village.
NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANS
There have recently been queries raised on why North Waltham has not got a Neighbourhood Plan and the NWPC thought it would be beneficial to share our feedback on this with all residents.
For background, a Neighbourhood Plan is a document that sets out planning policies for your area and can protect local green spaces; encourage better designed places and bring forward housing that genuinely meets local needs. It cannot be used as a tool to fight housing numbers and the parish would still be subject to housing targets as set out by the borough council. In Basingstoke and Deane, there are currently 15 adopted neighbourhood plans across the 52 parishes.
In 2018, North Waltham had a working group which worked extensively to try to adopt a plan for the village. The working group managed a call for sites, identified preferred development locations and recruited consultants to take the plan forward. However even with consultants on board, the making of a Neighbourhood Plan is a substantial undertaking which required considerable levels of work from all involved. Unfortunately most of the volunteers had to step back from the project due to the significant commitment required and concerns that the benefits of the plan didn’t justify the time investment required.
The current Parish Council has considered re-launching the Neighbourhood Plan work group and sought training and advice on this. The NWPC was advised that the Neighbourhood Plan setting process takes approximately 2 years. If North Waltham commenced work now, any evidence collected would be required to reference the current Basingstoke Local Plan, not the proposed update which is provisionally scheduled to come into place in late 2025/early 2026 (subject to policy changes). As such any evidence collated now would need to be reconducted with the adoption of Basingstoke’s Local Plan Update. Therefore, timing wise NWPC has been advised to hold until the Basingstoke LPU is further along.
Moving forward, the Parish Council are continuing to investigate potentially reinstating a North Waltham neighbourhood plan (or a similar policy) and researching the local planning policy and requirements however additional manpower will be required if this is something that the village would like to take forward.
Should any volunteers wish to be involved in reintroducing the Neighbourhood Plan, please contact clerk@northwaltham.info to express your interest.
