Local resident’s attending one of Maria Miller MP's regular Community Chats urged Basingstoke Councillors to fight for lower housing numbers, repeatedly asking Cllr Gavin James, co-leader of the current Borough Council administration to push back on the numbers currently being proposed for the local plan update.
Local MP Maria Miller said, "Basingstoke is in a unique situation due to historic building levels over the last 50 years. The government has already been clear these could be viewed as "exceptional circumstances" in the new proposed local plan, so lowering the number of new houses that Basingstoke has to build. But the Borough Councillors have to make the case on behalf of residents. We can't win the argument if the current administration isn't prepared to use the evidence and make the case. Schools in the wrong position particularly in the Chineham area should also be considered as a real and present constraint."
Maria said, “It was clear during the meeting that the overwhelming feeling of residents is to lower the number of houses built in the borough because of the very high historic levels of building distorting the predicted future growth levels. This is consistent with previous quantitative research undertaken by Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council amongst residents. The new administration at B&DBC need to listen to residents and abide by the full Council decision to reject the proposed build number. Residents want our Councillors to fight for a lower overall number of houses built.
“Basingstoke has built at twice the level of the rest of the Country for the last 50 years, with homes for over 150,000 people. Basingstoke has never really caught its breathe, particularly to allow our local NHS to catch up and new communities to settle in.
“Basingstoke is exceptional and almost nowhere else has achieved the same levels of house building. Planning rules specifically set out that exceptional circumstances can be used to reduce building levels. But no other community in the country has been in a position to use high historic house building, we could be the first to successfully make that case.
“The administration needs to take this approach knowing that they have the full backing of every Council member. There needs to be a level of conviction to challenge the overall number with the planning inspector and forge a way to create new precedence on house building”.
