- pamelacharlwood
- Mar 20
Bargate appeal: land west of Old Street P/24/1553/OA
As we have previously reported, Bargate Homes have appealed against Fareham Borough Council’s decision to refuse planning permission for 62 houses on the fields west of Old Street. The appeal will be heard by the planning inspector from the National Planning Inspectorate at FBC offices on 9 and 10 June; a decision should be communicated on or before 5 August 2026.
The closing date for new reports from the two parties (Bargate and FBC) is 27 March: that deadline also applies to anyone else who wishes to comment.
As we have advised, the Planning Inspector will have available to him all the comments which were made last year on the application. We should therefore only submit new comments or evidence.
I contacted the FBC planning officer and asked if we would have time to see anything FBC or Bargate put on the appeal website before 27 March and her reply was as follows:
The Council’s Statement of Case is being prepared, and this will all be made public on the 27 March. I can advise that Ian Dudley has prepared a Landscape Statement of Case for us in which he reiterates the points he made in the landscape consultation response to the application. The Council has a Planning Consultant working on our Statement of Case and Statement of Common Ground. All the previous objections have been made available to the Inspector.
An appeal Statement of Case should not present any new information and should seek only to expand upon and support the Council’s decision. I hope this is helpful.
Your committee will give this further thought in the next few days and will decide if we can put together a brief statement which perhaps covers the effects of the recent heavy rain, flooding the back of the properties on Knights Bank Road and I will also check the latest marsh harrier numbers and perhaps add that. It is, incidentally, good news that Ian Dudley has reiterated the information he put in his landscape report last year as it was excellent and we referred to it in our evidence.
Any new comments sent must quote the appeal reference 6004772.
Solent Cliffs Nursing Home P/24/1672/FP
You will recall that Solent Cliffs Nursing Home gained planning consent for an extension in April last year. We observed this week that the site is being prepared for building work, including all parking being moved onto Old Street. We contacted the planning officer at FBC as the decision notice stipulated that a construction management plan must be submitted before building work starts. No such plan has been received and the planning officer has confirmed she is following it up. The relevant extract from the decision notice is attached.
Osborne View
A reminder that the massive crane will be assembled on the site on 26 and 27 March, following which it is hoped the road can be re-opened.
Southern Water
We are grateful to two of our members for their pressure on Southern Water. One of our members wrote to the CEO of Southern Water and drew attention to the long term concerns about water quality and, in particular, the prolonged genuine release that lasted 190 hours 28 minutes from 16 – 24 February. He has received a reply from Southern Water which he has agreed I may share with you and which is attached.
We are also grateful to our member who, working with the Parliamentary Assistant to Dame Caroline Dinenage MP, kept pressing Southern Water and Openreach to effect the necessary repairs at the junction of Beverley Road and Moody Road. After many, many months of pressure – and waste water tankers – the final repair was completed on Friday 13 March.
Meeting about shellfish hand gathering
On Wednesday, five of us from HHRA met with the FBC Senior Environmental Health Officer Wendy Shakespeare and representatives of Southern Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Area (Southern IFCA) and the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA), which was set up after the awful tragedy at Morecambe Bay in 2004 when at least 22 people were drowned while harvesting cockles. (The GLAA will be brought together with two other agencies from April 2026 to form the Fair Work Agency).
The meeting was initiated by Wendy Shakespeare and we are extremely grateful to her as it was very informative. We will agree with Wendy, IFCA and GLAA a summary of what was discussed at the meeting and will send it out with our next Update. For now, suffice to say we all learned a lot and feel very much more knowledgeable.
Consultations
Town centre re-generation: if you were not able to get to the exhibition last week, the plans can be viewed at www.fareham.gov.uk/farehamtowncentre
You can also give your comments by 13th April:
Shaping the Future of Fareham Town Centre https://share.google/ZlfrOBQTwGw5YblQB
Dementia plan: Hampshire County Council is inviting comments by 12 April https://share.google/FfbdhaZYOcyT9uuLP