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
Anna Duignan ( Chair ) Phone: 01794 516361
Email: planning@romseydistrictsociety.co.uk
Chris Amery
Neill Beasley
Chris Esplin-Jones
Kate Greatrix
Robert Grime
Diane Hargreaves
Derek Langford
Susan Taylor
Geoff Uglow
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.
Summary of last year’s activity ( 2016 / 2017 )
The Society’s Planning Committee has 10 members all of whom know the town really well and many have a lot of experience within the Society. We continue to have two architects on the committee, a retired planner and plenty of valid and professional experience on town and other matters within the group.
We have held 12 meetings during the year and have considered some 36 planning applications, generating plenty of discussion. We’ve made comments on most of those applications to Test Valley Borough Council in the form of objections or support. The proposals have included a range of residential schemes from extensions to new dwellings to substantial layouts. In addition we’ve looked at listed building applications, advertisements displays, parking schemes, shopfronts, theatre and gas fired energy plants proposals.
The Test Valley Revised Local Plan was adopted by the Borough Council in early 2016 and a legal challenge has since been rejected leaving the Revised Local Plan as the adopted plan for the area and beyond challenge. The pressure for development however persists so the RDS Planning Committee continues to consider the applications on their merits and in regard to the Local Plan.
In July we hosted The Chichester Conservation Area Advisory Committee on their visit to Romsey. They requested to come as part of a series of visits that they were making to other towns in the country. We escorted them around the historic town centre showing them various examples of the listed buildings and parts of the conservation area. It all generated a good exchange of views. There is an extensive list of bodies represented on the Chichester group, including the Georgian Group, the Twentieth Century Society, Royal Institute of British Architects, Royal Town Planning Institute, area tree wardens, Chichester City and District Councils, local residents, Chichester Society, Urban Design Group, etc.
For much of the year the RDS Planning Committee has been dealing with the proposals being put forward by Hampshire County Council, with Test Valley Borough Council, on the enhancement of the Market Place in Romsey. Our involvement has been detailed and extends from when a plan was tabled for the Market Place when the Bell Street highway improvement plans were the subject of a public consultation from the end of February into April 2016. Following that initial showing for the Market Place we were able to have a meeting with the highway officers to discuss the next stage of a formal public consultation. We secured their agreement to show another option, in addition to their own scheme, in the next round of the publicity in November/December 2016. In addition to the HCC’s publication of the exhibition, we undertook to encourage people to take part in the consultation exercise by posting leaflet drops to residents in the immediate locality and sending emails to RDS members to remind them of the process and to urge them to take part as well as giving our preference for option 2 of the displayed schemes. We have recently been advised of the outcome of the process and understand that Option 1 has been selected. This promotes the redirection of the traffic in the Market Place to accommodate a pedestrian area projecting into the square from the north side to and surrounding the statue of Lord Palmerston. It is intended that the alteration works shall to be carried out over a 14 weeks period from January 2019.
In the meantime we continue to consider a selection of the planning applications in the town and its outlying district.
Committee members
Anna Duignan ( Chair ) Phone: 01794 516361
Email: planning@romseydistrictsociety.co.uk
Chris Amery
Neill Beasley
Chris Esplin-Jones
Kate Greatrix
Robert Grime
Diane Hargreaves
Derek Langford
Susan Taylor
Geoff Uglow
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.
Summary of last year’s activity ( 2016 / 2017 )
The Society’s Planning Committee has 10 members all of whom know the town really well and many have a lot of experience within the Society. We continue to have two architects on the committee, a retired planner and plenty of valid and professional experience on town and other matters within the group.
We have held 12 meetings during the year and have considered some 36 planning applications, generating plenty of discussion. We’ve made comments on most of those applications to Test Valley Borough Council in the form of objections or support. The proposals have included a range of residential schemes from extensions to new dwellings to substantial layouts. In addition we’ve looked at listed building applications, advertisements displays, parking schemes, shopfronts, theatre and gas fired energy plants proposals.
The Test Valley Revised Local Plan was adopted by the Borough Council in early 2016 and a legal challenge has since been rejected leaving the Revised Local Plan as the adopted plan for the area and beyond challenge. The pressure for development however persists so the RDS Planning Committee continues to consider the applications on their merits and in regard to the Local Plan.
In July we hosted The Chichester Conservation Area Advisory Committee on their visit to Romsey. They requested to come as part of a series of visits that they were making to other towns in the country. We escorted them around the historic town centre showing them various examples of the listed buildings and parts of the conservation area. It all generated a good exchange of views. There is an extensive list of bodies represented on the Chichester group, including the Georgian Group, the Twentieth Century Society, Royal Institute of British Architects, Royal Town Planning Institute, area tree wardens, Chichester City and District Councils, local residents, Chichester Society, Urban Design Group, etc.
For much of the year the RDS Planning Committee has been dealing with the proposals being put forward by Hampshire County Council, with Test Valley Borough Council, on the enhancement of the Market Place in Romsey. Our involvement has been detailed and extends from when a plan was tabled for the Market Place when the Bell Street highway improvement plans were the subject of a public consultation from the end of February into April 2016. Following that initial showing for the Market Place we were able to have a meeting with the highway officers to discuss the next stage of a formal public consultation. We secured their agreement to show another option, in addition to their own scheme, in the next round of the publicity in November/December 2016. In addition to the HCC’s publication of the exhibition, we undertook to encourage people to take part in the consultation exercise by posting leaflet drops to residents in the immediate locality and sending emails to RDS members to remind them of the process and to urge them to take part as well as giving our preference for option 2 of the displayed schemes. We have recently been advised of the outcome of the process and understand that Option 1 has been selected. This promotes the redirection of the traffic in the Market Place to accommodate a pedestrian area projecting into the square from the north side to and surrounding the statue of Lord Palmerston. It is intended that the alteration works shall to be carried out over a 14 weeks period from January 2019.
In the meantime we continue to consider a selection of the planning applications in the town and its outlying district.
