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The Botley Parish Action Group (BPAG) has been formed to stop the
Government’s plans for a massive development of 6,000 homes that
would blight the area of Botley, Durley, Curdridge and Hedge End. This 'new town' would be 3 times the current size of Botley. Local young people will quite rightly need more homes in the future, but less than a tenth of the proposed number. In the plan, 93% of this housing is intended for people overflowing from other districts.
 | | * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * | Newsflash
23 July 2010 | It's Official:
EBC has killed the SDA ! | | NOW we can CELEBRATE !!
Eastleigh Borough Council last night unanimously accepted the Cabinet recommendation to abolish the N/NE Hedge End SDA. Council Leader Keith House said, "The SDA does not exist, finished, end, full stop". He also welcomed the fact that the Government’s abolition of the South East Plan empowers the Council to now plan on the basis of local needs.
So we now move forward into a new phase of planning, and a new style of planning. Provided housing needs are genuinely planned on the basis of local needs, then 22nd July 2010 marks the day that Botley Village was saved. Attaching a new town to quadruple its size would have destroyed it completely.
Also yesterday, Winchester City Council Cabinet Committee accepted their Strategic Planning Committee’s recommendation to "Not proceed with publication of the Core Strategy in its current form...". George Hollingbery, MP for Meon Valley and active campaigner with us against the SDA, addressed the meeting saying, “I welcome the abandonment of the N/NE Hedge End SDA”, and asked the Councillors to resist any replacement proposals that would adversely impact the same area. This was the day that Durley and Curdridge Villages were saved too.
Again, we thank everyone who has helped and supported the campaign. As we said before, BPAG will continue in place through this next phase of planning and will keep you informed. | | * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * |
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17 July 2010 | EBC Cabinet Recommends Scrapping the SDA | 
click the image to display
the document
(37KB pdf) | The Eastleigh Borough Council Cabinet meeting on 15th July has resolved to recommend to the Full Council that "the Strategic Development Area (N/NE Hedge End) be not taken forward in the Council's Core strategy".
The Full Council meeting is expected to accept this recommendation and thereby formally abolish the SDA. This meeting is at 7:00pm on 22nd July (this Thursday) at the Civic Offices, and is open to the Public.
This is a tremendous milestone for us all, and achieves the primary aim of BPAG. We would like to thank all of you who have supported us, especially at the packed Public meetings. In the two years since BPAG was formed we believe we have helped EBC to question the SDA more strongly, examine it more closely and reach this decision.
For the future, of course, the planning continues, and the vital question is how EBC and Botley Parish Council will now move forward to determine the housing requirement for this area based on local needs. This is what the new Government wants to happen, and why they scrapped the South East Plan.
BPAG must therefore remain in place to take part in this next phase of planning, and we will keep you informed about how this unfolds. We especially look forward to working with BPC and discussing the level of new housing which is appropriate to meet local needs.
More immediately, we will confirm here the outcome of the EBC meeting on 22nd July, together with any other information available at the time. | | * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * |
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This is a developer's proposal of the area needed for 6,000 homes and associated infrastructure |  | - The development would destroy
the character and identity of
existing local communities
- The necessary infrastructure cannot
be provided in a sustainable way
- And there has been inadequate
consultation with the local community.
| There are intractable issues across just about
every aspect of the quality of life that people
should be able to trust their Government to protect. |
At the core of this issue is the Government’s new back-to-front planning process, which is designed to require no meaningful consultation with local residents, ignore the impact on their quality of life, and to steamroller through the approval of plans before essential technical studies are carried out. As a result, this planned development is ill conceived from the start. Even if this number of new dwellings were to be needed - and there are serious doubts about that too - this is a wrong place to put them, both for the local communities and for the new people themselves. | BPAG is non-party-political | Many issues surrounding this planned development are inevitably political, but BPAG is firmly non-party-political. We seek and welcome support from everyone irrespective of their politics. This is fundamental to our being, and underpins the way in which we will work towards our aim of stopping this huge and misguided development. |
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