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Longmoor Road development - stage 2 - Freddie Dawkins (7th Jan 2004 - 14:37:55) I've just received minutes of the Planning Committee meeting from last Monday evening, so thought it might be useful to start a new thread, as we now enter the next stage. First, the complete Minutes are available for anyone to read, in the Parish Office. The Minutes are pretty extensive, so I'll paraphrase the conclusion to Monday night's deliberations on the proposed scheme from Robert Shaw Planning, which would mean building on green fields alongside Bohunt School: 1, The Chairman concluded that although most Parish Councillors attending the meeting were in favour of this outline application, it was difficult to decide how the Committee could respond, as no letters of support had been received from the public, only seven letters of objection from Longmoor Road residents. (I understand that there were about 36 Parishoners at the meeting and most were there to oppose the scheme). 2, Although there had been some very informal discussion at the open Planning Forum back in October 2003, at that time there were no detailed proposals discussed. 3, So the Chairman secured the Committee's agreement on Monday evening to inform East Hampshire District Council of the support for the scheme, but that EHDC should also be advised that many Longmoor Road residents object to it. As I say, there's a lot more detail in the official Minutes and everyone really should go along to the Parish Office and read them or take copies of them. There are also detailed Minutes on the proposed development at 94, 96 and rear of 98-102 Longmoor Road; and the long-running application for building on land at the rear of 49-57 Tunbridge Crescent. Note: the EHDC South Planning Committee meeting will be held at Penns Place tomorrow (Thursday) at 6.30pm. Hope this helps. Freddie Dawkins Parish Councillor

Re: Longmoor Road development - stage 2 - Nick Hancock (7th Jan 2004 - 20:49:02) Thanks Freddie. I think your last posting on the earlier thread (6th Jan) serves to remind us how important it is that the Parish Council and EHDC get this one right. I'm afraid, having been at the meeting on Monday, that the Parish Council seems to have failed us on this one. As I understand it, the logic of those Councillors who supported the Longmoor Road proposal was that either this site or the Lowsley Farm site will be developed and that, in that case, it was better to support the development which (1) provides more educational facilities and (2) would be consistent with the suggestion (not part of the current proposal) to cut congestion in the Square by building a link road between the Portsmouth Road and Longmoor Road. Both sound superficially attractive but I'm afraid both are misconceived. So far as educational facilities are concerned, no-one seems to have considered how the land could be used for schooling. The Infants School will shortly have 270 places; the Junior School already has 360 places. The suggestion seems to be that both should move to Longmoor Road so that they can expand - but who would want infants / junior schools bigger than they are already? They would be completely unmanageable. (And this is without considering what would happen to their existing site - is development of this site part of the plan too?) The alternative of opening extra new infants and junior schools on Longmoor Road would be little short of ludicrous - we would end up with five schools on the same side of the village, all attracting their traffic. I leave you to imagine the congestion! As for roads, how much traffic across the Square is caused by drivers travelling between Longmoor Road and the Portsmouth Road? Anyone who uses the Square knows that the main congestion comes from people travelling to or from the Headley Road, Haslemere Road and London Road. The suggested link would make no difference to this (nor would it be much use to Liphook parents using the proposed new schools!). On the other hand the suggested link road would be an open invitation to more development between it and the village centre - something which the Councillors present on Monday seemed to take as read. Which takes me back to my original point about losing the rural character of the village ... The Councillors seemed to think it relevant that all objections so far had come from Longmoor Road (though they did also note that no-one at all had written in support of the proposal). Perhaps this is because, apart from on this website, the proposal has received precious little publicity elsewhere in the village. Everyone else: this is your chance to act! Write as soon as you can to the Planning Policy Department at EHDC to make your objections known! I only hope that no final decision will be made at the meeting in Petersfield tomorrow (my understanding on Monday was that the inquiry would continue for some time). PS Mike - I'm not against "organic development" - but that is not how I class a single block of up to 225 houses plus misplaced schooling.

Re: Longmoor Road development - stage 2 - Mike Grimes (14th Jan 2004 - 00:35:24) I tend to agree on the comments about misplaced schooling. I f the village is to grow, we need schools on either side of the village. In respect of the Longmoor Road proposal, I think we need more than a bit of set aside for educational use. We need a substantial proposal - properly considered. I suspect that the idea is that the 'new' educational use land will allow new larger primary schools to be built by a developer in exchange for new housing on the current school sites. This would tend to put all the village schooling onto one campus (2000+ children ). Although we consider that this would be walkable from most parts of the village on all but the most inclement days it is likely that the MPVs will be heading in that direction in force (possibly, even, from Avenue Close). One possible site for new primary schools is the remainder of the OSU site. Obviously, this does not form part of the current owner's plans but with all the other plans flying about, there is a case for some 'joined up thinking' here.

Re: Longmoor Road development - stage 2 - Nick Hancock (31st Jan 2004 - 11:52:11) Next Tuesday 3rd February at 8:00 pm there is a general planning forum meeting held at the Millennium Hall. The notice says that the discussion could include “any issues of concern from masts to specific developments to infrastructure to future needs”. It is important that as many people as possible with views on the proposal for Longmoor Road should be present both to hear what is being said but also to have their say. It was fairly clear from the planning committee meeting at the beginning of this month that the Parish Council sets great store by what is said at these meetings.

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