Assumptions
- That approximately 160 houses are proposed outside the boundary of Old Basing & Lychpit Parish. Thus the Redlands development will be extended.
- That approximately 290 houses are proposed inside the boundary of Old Basing & Lychpit Parish.
Overall, 450 houses on the site form part of the Local Plan agreed in 2016.
The Local Plan stated ‘A potential later phase for 450 dwellings may be delivered beyond the Plan period’. That is, beyond 2029. So why is HCC going to seek outline planning permission now for 900 houses on the site? We are in year 2023 – not 2029.
Comments on HCC proposals published on the HCC website on 13th July 2023: www.landeastofbasingstoke.com
Have your say on plans for Land East of Basingstoke.
Site challenges
- Odour and noise
The proposals acknowledge that odour from the Basingstoke Sewage Treatment Works is a problem, known locally as the ‘Chineham Whiff’. In 2016 the Planning Inspector said ‘there would be unacceptable odours’ for new residents. We note that a dotted line is shown on one of the maps to indicate the limits of the odour zone (to put it like that). We report that one of our Parish Councillors who lives in Broadhurst Grove in Lychpit had an odour problem in her road. Those who investigated this found that it was not a local drain causing the odour in Broadhurst Grove but the Sewage Treatment Works. (The distance between Broadhurst Grove in Lychpit and the Sewage Treatment Works is about 2.5 kilometres.) The vagaries of wind direction make this a very difficult problem to deal with.
Very still conditions tend to lead to the spread of odour, as in the Summer of 2022. The odour can be evident when walking along the path which is parallel with Park Pale, as it approaches the A33 and also along the permissive path that runs north of the incinerator.
The sewage odour is particularly noticeable along the path that runs to the north east of Blacklands Farm.
Does HCC think that it is feasible for people to live happily alongside such odour?
In 2016 the Planning Inspector said ‘there will be noise from the A33, the incinerator and sewage works’. There are noisy vehicles delivering to the incinerator and sewage works all day, and in the case of the sewage works, at weekends too.
Regarding the incinerator, we make the point that this was built purposely to be away from housing estates. In HCC’s ‘Minerals and Waste Local Plan 1993’, when the present incinerator was being planned, the ‘countryside location’ of the incinerator was noted on page 161. If houses are built in close proximity, the incinerator will no longer be in a ‘countryside location’. Although the site is fairly close to housing estates in Chineham, the site was preferred to alternatives, presumably because of its more remote location.
The housing development planned by HCC will bring the houses closer to the incinerator. You will be aware that harmful particles may be released, causing respiratory and other health problems for residents living nearby.
- Access and movement
For us, the proposal to have a Bus Gate at the bottom of the site, going into either Bartons
Lane or Great Binfields Road is particularly worrying. Should this proposal become the
actuality then other vehicles will use it as a short cut very quickly. We don’t want more vehicles passing through our Parish.
The appearance of a Bus Gate, with large signs and signage painted on the road, would be out of character with the near rural positioning of Lychpit and Old Basing.
At the recent consultation ‘drop in event’ at Lychpit hall, many residents were expressing concern about the increased traffic and the impact of that traffic. One resident reports hearing a verbal promise of 3 buses an hour but this would almost certainly be unprofitable for the operating company and the buses would be reduced to one per hour or even less than that.
We would like to see HCC’s traffic survey.
- Water and flood risk
Where will the water supply for the residential areas come from? We are told that no new reservoirs have been built in the last 30 years. Water supply for 450 houses must be a concern. (Thinking about 900 houses, much worse …)
We are already worried about abstraction from the aquifers that feed the River Loddon, a rare north flowing chalk stream – a salmonid watercourse – with environmentally important peat bogs along its length.
Historic photographs[1] show that, unless there are flood conditions, the River Loddon is very shallow (often just a few inches) compared to its flow in the past. Further abstraction could result in the river drying up, which has happened to chalk streams elsewhere, for example the River Quinn in Hertfordshire. Climate change has resulted in less Spring and Summer rainfall, a fact acknowledged by The Environment Agency in 2019 when they found ‘Soils got drier across much of England during April and by the end of the month soils were significantly drier than average across most of East and South-East England’[2]. Since then, in 2022 there were drought conditions and June 2023 was exceptionally dry. Chalk streams like the River Loddon are England’s most important habitat. They are of global significance and it has been argued they are as important as rainforests in ecological terms. It cannot be assumed that the aquifers will continue to provide water for more and more consumers. The WWF has predicted there will soon be a need for water rationing.
If assurance has been given on sufficient water supply where has this come from?
The proposals acknowledge that there is flood risk in parts of the site. Please advise us of the distance between the flood zone and the nearest house to it.
The proposals don’t deal with sewage treatment. When there is heavy rainfall the existing Sewage Treatment Works discharges raw sewage into the precious ecosystem of the River Loddon. According to Thames Water’s ‘live’ map between the 7th January and the 13th January 2023 there were 139 hours of continuous discharge. Less lengthy incidents occurred later in the same month and in February and March. The more houses the plant has to serve the more likely this is to happen, which is not only unpleasant but incredibly damaging to delicate ecosystems.
Will a new sewage treatment plant be built? We understand that the existing one is at capacity.
- Ecology and biodiversity
Damage to the environment – In 2016 the Planning Inspector said the development would result in ‘the loss of key habitat’ as well as contributing to an ‘increase in watercourse phosphate concentration in the River Loddon’. The process of development will inevitably lead to noxious run off and particles going into the River Loddon.
The existence of important trees including large oaks has been acknowledged in the proposals. How are these going to be protected from damage during the development process?
- Heritage
We welcome the Roman Road becoming a pedestrian route.
We note that the Pyotts Hill Entrenchment will be protected. How close to this will the houses be built?
Will the existing footpath which runs parallel to the Pyotts Hill Entrenchment be retained as it is?
Transport and movement
Traffic and noise. The Inspector reported that ‘there will be noise from the A33, the incinerator and sewage works’, whilst also noting that the development could lead to ‘congestion and delays upon the surrounding transport networks’, namely the A33 which will be affected by increased resident and building vehicle traffic. As residents of Old Basing and Lychpit we already endure frustrating levels of traffic using village roads as a rat run and adding hundreds of vehicles from this development will not help.
The A33 is a single carriageway until it becomes a dual carriageway beyond Beech Hill. The housing estates at Taylor’s Farm and now Redlands mean that a route already at capacity – with no plans for relief – has got worse. The proposal that traffic will exit the East of Basingstoke site to go onto the A33 will result in the A33 becoming even busier.
(See again page 2 above for our concerns about the Bus Gate.)
Landscape and environment
Parish Councillor David Whiter wrote to the Borough Council Leaders and our MP in late August 2021, making these points:
– Producing our Neighbourhood Plan (published in 2018) made us very aware how much the residents valued the Loddon Valley environment and how strongly they wanted it protected and enhanced.
-It is shocking that the Local Plan Update proposal means an increase from 450 to 1800 houses on sites 001 and 002 in the Loddon Valley. This threatens an asset of huge recreational and environmental value with its bio-diversity, flora and fauna, numerous Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation, history and scenic beauty. Large scale development will further compromise water quality in the Loddon and minimise the value of the Strategic Gap between Basingstoke and Old Basing and Lychpit. A further 800 houses are proposed for site 007. (If brownfield sites are favoured, why select the Loddon Valley?)
There are few opportunities for the people of Basingstoke to have access to the countryside. The benefits in terms of well-being of walking in nature are well researched and documented. The Loddon Valley area should be retained for recreation by the local community.
Initial proposals
We note that, throughout the proposals document, there is a marked reliance on the Chineham and wider area for shopping, schools, doctors, dentists and community centre/s; some of these are oversubscribed.
HCC plans a new primary school, community centre and a local centre to be built within the site.
We ask: Built on what timescale? There is a history of HCC promising schools which only get built decades later.
The shortage of doctors and dentists is a nationwide problem but, to be parochial, how will the needs of 450 to 900 new households be met in this respect? Doctors’ and dentists’ surgeries must be under strain in the surrounding area. Pharmacies are closing, putting more pressure on those that stay open.
If we take the average household occupancy as being 2.4 people per dwelling, then for 450 houses there will be an extra 1,080 residents and for 900 houses an extra 2,160 residents. That’s a lot of people needing medical care and other services. (The context is that nearby Old Basing and Lychpit have around 7,400 residents who live in approximately 3,200 households.)
In conclusion
As reported above, in 2016 the Planning Inspector said ‘there would be unacceptable odours’ for new residents, also stating that ‘there will be noise from the A33, the incinerator and sewage works’.
Building houses closer to the Sewage Treatment Works and the incinerator has inherent problems.
The residents of Lychpit and Old Basing have campaigned for decades to preserve the Loddon Valley and to protect the River Loddon. SOLVE – Save Our Loddon Valley Environment – has notably been in the forefront of raising concerns with Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council and HCC.
The concerns raised in this response are real and they do need to be addressed.
Alan Renwick
For the OBLEC Committee
[1] Which we have copies of.
[2] Quoted in ‘Chalk streams in Action by Martin Salter and Stuart Singleton-White’.