Planning Committee
The Romsey and District Society’s Planning Committee [ PC ] reviews planning applications and expresses its views to the local authority on those of importance to the community. The committee also studies and comments on the Local Development Framework and other planning documents from local and central government.
Committee members
Chris Esplin-Jones - Chairman
Email - Planning@RomseyDistrictSociety.co.uk
Alastair Monger - Vice Chairman
Sue Mullane - Secretary
Chris Amery
Neill Beasley
Clive Collier
Anna Duignan
Robert Grime
Diane Hargreaves
Derek Langford
Sue Taylor
Calendar of Committee Meetings
The Romsey & District Society welcomes the support of all its members to raise any issues of concern and interest. Any member with complementary or useful experience can contribute advice to any of the committees on specific issues or on a more general basis.
Planning Committee: 2020 Update
Despite a pandemic this year has experienced pretty normal planning activity with around three thousand applications within Test Valley.
It is good to note recent improvements to the town’s infrastructure such as the growing use of the Market Place piazza both for market stalls and as a place to meet, the improved skate park, the new Ganger Farm sports facilities and pavilion due to open this year, the decent and much drier paths of the Fishlake Walk and the new Causeway bridge – one of the final elements of the flood prevention scheme.
For the future, an outline development plan for the south of Romsey town centre providing a new large multi-purpose hall, more retail space and a better transport hub, has been adopted by the Borough Council. This is part of the Romsey Future initiative. Oxlease, Abbotswood, and Kings Chase developments are all moving towards completion while a new small development is being planned for Abbotswood House. The Hoe Lane new housing project is proceeding having now met an outstanding Nitrate retention issue, while the Whitenap development processes seem to have slowed down. If this leads to delay, we might see opportunistic applications being raised for developments to meet the shortfall in delivery of the near term new housing quota in the Local Plan. Regretfully the Botley Road traffic jam remains a commuting feature of our town. Finally, there is now a debate about how to re-open The Hundred to vehicular traffic and the related traffic flow in Portersbridge Street as the Covid19 pandemic is subdued.
What the committee does:
It looks at policy papers. It responded to the Government White Paper on “Planning for the Future” questionnaire which is looking at ways of streamlining processing planning applications. In this case the focus was on energy efficiency for new housing design, how new housing quotas are allocated, use of brown field sites and management of infrastructure levies, CIL, on new developments. Another aspect considered was the definition of the area of Southern Test Valley. It was concluded that there were advantages in retaining the divisional northern boundary at the Dukes Head, so long as new housing quotas are based on existing population size - despite recognising that the Romsey influence covers the land just about as far as Stockbridge.
The committee considered the draft Romsey Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan and proposed a small change to the area boundary. This plan is now with the Borough Council for endorsement.
It also looks at planning applications. The statistics are, that out of the three thousand raised, it looked at 65 applications supporting 13, objecting to 21, and made no comment, after consideration, on 31. For these 65 applications Test Valley Borough council gave permission for 22, refused 3, while 8 were withdrawn and 32 [some raised in very early 2020] are still being discussed.
Examples of applications we are uneasy about:
There are, however, exciting proposals being developed for the World of Water site. If this goes ahead it will provide a new tourist attraction and encourage increased footfall in the town.
Committee members
Chris Esplin-Jones - Chairman
Email - Planning@RomseyDistrictSociety.co.uk
Alastair Monger - Vice Chairman
Sue Mullane - Secretary
Chris Amery
Neill Beasley
Clive Collier
Anna Duignan
Robert Grime
Diane Hargreaves
Derek Langford
Sue Taylor
Calendar of Committee Meetings
The Romsey & District Society welcomes the support of all its members to raise any issues of concern and interest. Any member with complementary or useful experience can contribute advice to any of the committees on specific issues or on a more general basis.
Planning Committee: 2020 Update
Despite a pandemic this year has experienced pretty normal planning activity with around three thousand applications within Test Valley.
It is good to note recent improvements to the town’s infrastructure such as the growing use of the Market Place piazza both for market stalls and as a place to meet, the improved skate park, the new Ganger Farm sports facilities and pavilion due to open this year, the decent and much drier paths of the Fishlake Walk and the new Causeway bridge – one of the final elements of the flood prevention scheme.
For the future, an outline development plan for the south of Romsey town centre providing a new large multi-purpose hall, more retail space and a better transport hub, has been adopted by the Borough Council. This is part of the Romsey Future initiative. Oxlease, Abbotswood, and Kings Chase developments are all moving towards completion while a new small development is being planned for Abbotswood House. The Hoe Lane new housing project is proceeding having now met an outstanding Nitrate retention issue, while the Whitenap development processes seem to have slowed down. If this leads to delay, we might see opportunistic applications being raised for developments to meet the shortfall in delivery of the near term new housing quota in the Local Plan. Regretfully the Botley Road traffic jam remains a commuting feature of our town. Finally, there is now a debate about how to re-open The Hundred to vehicular traffic and the related traffic flow in Portersbridge Street as the Covid19 pandemic is subdued.
What the committee does:
It looks at policy papers. It responded to the Government White Paper on “Planning for the Future” questionnaire which is looking at ways of streamlining processing planning applications. In this case the focus was on energy efficiency for new housing design, how new housing quotas are allocated, use of brown field sites and management of infrastructure levies, CIL, on new developments. Another aspect considered was the definition of the area of Southern Test Valley. It was concluded that there were advantages in retaining the divisional northern boundary at the Dukes Head, so long as new housing quotas are based on existing population size - despite recognising that the Romsey influence covers the land just about as far as Stockbridge.
The committee considered the draft Romsey Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan and proposed a small change to the area boundary. This plan is now with the Borough Council for endorsement.
It also looks at planning applications. The statistics are, that out of the three thousand raised, it looked at 65 applications supporting 13, objecting to 21, and made no comment, after consideration, on 31. For these 65 applications Test Valley Borough council gave permission for 22, refused 3, while 8 were withdrawn and 32 [some raised in very early 2020] are still being discussed.
Examples of applications we are uneasy about:
- Two houses at Fishlake Cottage, in the countryside, overpowering design, inaccurate application and facing the nature reserve
- Wellow replacement dwelling – density
- Braishfield - Hillview – poor access and poor off road parking
- Abbey Hotel – Lost tourist capacity
- Block E at Abbotswood - Loss of community asset
There are, however, exciting proposals being developed for the World of Water site. If this goes ahead it will provide a new tourist attraction and encourage increased footfall in the town.
