[Disclaimer - this is my personal view as an independent observer at the recent Parish Council meeting and is not in anyway approved by the Parish Council]
Earlier in the summer, I posted on the forum (http://www.hartwellvillage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1006) about how South Northamptonshire’s council interim rural housing consultation policy had identified Hartwell as a village suitable for some additional development. The draft policy also hinted at how one of the future options was to look more favourably at planning applications on land outside or next to villages.
This policy has now, with a few amendments, been adopted, and the Parish Council will be expected to redefine the official village bounds for 2012. The current bounds were defined sometime in the 1990s, and they mark the point at which it is next to impossible to get planning permission, certainly for new buildings.
The Parish Council have also recently received a letter regarding an initial proposal to build 36 houses on the farm land at the end of School Lane (across the lane from the Community Centre and next to the school). At this stage there are not many details – the letter merely starts the very lengthy process towards a formal planning application.
The negatives to any development of this size, especially at this location outside the existing village bounds, are obvious – loss of agricultural land, increase in traffic past the school, insufficient capacity at local schools, and lack of infrastructure to name but a few. There are also positives – affordable housing for local people, more people to use local services like the post office, opportunity for planning gain (money given to the community from large developments) to improve local infrastructure, and recentralising the village.
As a community, we could fight off further expansion of the village, but would it do any good? At some point in the next ten years, our village, like it or not, will have to grow (unless the Government has a radical change in policy, or our lifestyles and ambitions radically change). 100% of the affordable housing rental units on Cross’s Close were assigned to people who meet the 10 year local connection criteria (that is people with a direct connection with Hartwell for at least 10 years) – so at the very least there is clearly a need for local housing for local people.
As one councillor suggested in the meeting, is now the time to sit down and work out, as a community, where we want, and don’t want, the village to grow, and what we need to ensure the village can support this growth. That then gives us something to negotiate with to ensure the future expansion of Hartwell is on our terms.
The Parish Council have given their response to this particular development - at this stage, until more information is available, a neutral one listing the pros and cons and the key issues, and the ball has started to roll in looking at how the future expansion of the village should be handled.
Can we avoid expansion? Where should the village expand? Where should the village not expand? Is expansion a good thing or a bad thing? What infrastructure improvements are required to support any growth?
I know my views, but this will affect us all, and the Parish Council will be doing a lot of consultation to make sure all our views are heard before this is over.
daylight_gambler
oops - sorry!
in the top righthand corner.
