Where shall be live?

Hampshire County Council issued a public consultation questionnaire, answers to which had to be returned by 21 October 2005. This was a "further stage in the preparation of a new planning strategy for the South East Region, called the South East Plan. The South East England Regional Assembly SEERA is drawing up the plan and has set regional and sub-regional housebuilding targets for the twenty years from 2006-20026. This includes a target for Hampshire as a whole (which includes Portsmouth and Southampton) and targets for the three sub-areas: Soth Hampshire, North Hampshire, and Central Hampshire & New Forest"

The document set out the options for each area in turn. Key questions were posed, to which local people were invited to respond. The options for North Hampshire were drawn up for the purposes of public consultation by Hampshire County Council in consultation with the three Borough and District Councils in the sub-region: Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, Hart District Council, and Rushmoor Borough Council.

North Hampshire comprises the towns of Basingstoke, Fleet, Farnborough and Aldershot, together with the smaller towns of Hartley Wintney, Hook and Yateley and the surounding rural areas. It includes the whole of Rushmoor Borough, most of Basingstoke and all but the southern part of Hart District.

In the South East Plan, North Hampshire is included in the Western Corridor and Blackwater Valley Sub-region which also contains parts of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Surrey. The Plan proposes the building of 4,490 new homes per year in the Western Corridor and Blackwater Valley Sub-region, of which 1,300 per year would be in North Hampshire.

Options for North Hampshire

The South East Plan proposes 26,000 new homes in North Hampshire over the next twenty years. Around 22,000 of these could be built on sites already earmarked for housing and on other sites within towns. Three options are being considered for the location of the 26,000 new homes.

Option 1. The majority of development (18,000 new homes) would be concentrated in and on the edges of Basingstoke town. The remaining new homes wold be built in Hart District (3,200 on sites already earmarked for housebuilding and on previously used land) and in Rushmoor Borough (4,800).

Option 2. In order to minimise development near the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area, a much lower rate of house building would take place in Rushmoor Borough (1,600 ne homes). This would be counterbalanced by more development around Basingstoke (21,200 new homes). 3,200 would be allocated to Hart District.

Option 3. Option three would involve a more even distribution of development across the three districts. In Basingstoke, there would be fewer homes (14,200). In Hart, there would be 5,600 necessitating development on some new greenfield sites. In Rushmoor, more sites would have to be found within existing urban areas to provide 6,200 new homes in total.

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