HHRA Update 29 October 2024

A quick update, primarily to provide a reminder about our meeting next Monday 4 November at the catholic church hall, Bell’s Lane, 7.30pm. Fiona Gray will present an update about the Welborne development and our councillors will provide any news about planning matters and other current issues at FBC and HCC.

Water Matters.  Coverage of water matters continues unabated in the national press and you may have seen the press item with the unwelcome news that Southern Water leads the pack when it comes to price increases, with the prospect of an over 40% increase over the next five years.

We have in the past (18 June and 9 July Updates) drawn attention to consultations taking place, in particular concerning the new Thicket reservoir at Rowlands Castle with the proposal for effluent recycling.       A further consultation is underway until 4 December and can be found at https://www.southernwater.co.uk/latest-news/creating-a-resilient-water-future-for-our-region/.        If you have an interest in this, you may also wish to look at the Havant Matters website and the extensive comments thereon: https://havantmatters.org/ 

On sea water quality, it may be helpful if I provide again the link that was in the 2 September Update: Many members follow Beachbuoy or Surfers Against Sewage to check sea water quality.  May we also recommend https://environment.data.gov.uk/bwq/profiles/  Enter Hill Head in the location box and you will see detailed information up to and including this year.  Hill Head is shown with a clean bill of health for 2024.  It is of course based on a once a week sample (taken from near Salterns car park) rather than ‘real time’ reporting, but it does add to the information available.

Scams.  We are warned that, with extra spending as Christmas approaches, we should be especially wary about fraudsters.  This includes those ringing you saying they are from police, HMRC, the fraud department of your bank or credit card provider.  Do not take it at face value, but ring off and ring a trusted number (eg on the back of your bank or credit card) to check.  Others currently doing the rounds include Spotify – your payment didn’t go through successfully, do try again via this link.

Road closures. As you will know, many road and rail closures take place over Christmas and an important one for us locally involves junctions 9 and 11 in Christmas week as work progresses to achieve all way access for junction 10, which is an essential requirement for Welborne: https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/24671096.welborne-m27-junction-10-close-christmas-2025/

Bin collections over Christmas.  You may have seen the details of bin collections over Christmas and New Year in Fareham Matters, but in case it is helpful, a copy is attached.

HHRA Update 22 October 2024

Next Members’ meeting

Our next meeting is on Monday 4 November at 7.30pm at the catholic church hall on Bell’s Lane (please note - that is our ‘usual’ location, not the larger one we used for the Osborne View meeting). Our speaker will be Fiona Gray, Project Director at Buckland Group, who will give us a progress report on the Welborne development.  This should be of interest not only because it is a ‘new town’ on the northern boundary of Fareham, but it will also make a major contribution to the housing numbers which Fareham Borough Council is required to deliver over the next twelve years.

We have also asked our councillors to provide any updates they can, including potential revisions to those housing targets and the decisions made by Hampshire County Council (HCC) about budgets and reductions in services: attached is a note of what we understand to have been the main decisions taken by HCC cabinet on 14 October.

Planning Matters

Your committee rolled up their sleeves and responded to the consultation on the new National Planning Policy Framework, emphasising, amongst other things, the need to maintain green space between housing developments and also the need to make developers start new builds on sites for which they have planning consent: the council may have granted planning consent, but until building starts, it does not count in the housing assessment on which planning approvals are judged.

On local planning matters:

·        Haven Cottage P/24/1273/FP: you may remember that HHRA was very supportive of the action taken by our member Lynne Murray to secure listed building status for Haven Cottage, which had been left empty and deteriorating by HCC.  The new owners have now put in for planning consent for work on the cottage, to bring it back into full use as a family home.

·        Haven House P/24/1306/LU: this is a very narrowly defined application, simply seeking to confirm the class of use which applied to Haven House when it was in use as a café and visitor centre. We understand that that class of use would also apply to its use for the planned purpose as a children’s nursery.  We expect further planning applications may be forthcoming in future.

·        Homebase/Sainsbury’s P/24/1302/VC: you may have read that Sainsbury’s have bought the Homebase site in Newgate Lane and this is their application for ‘variations of condition’ to allow the sale of food.  Their application suggests work would be carried out and completed so as to allow opening during 2025.

·        Houses at the Crofton pub P/23/0460/FP: the appeal against FBC’s refusal of planning permission was dismissed.

·        Titchfield Festival Theatre P/24/0007/DA: FBC’s enforcement notice was upheld by the planning inspector.  An application for use of land opposite the theatre for parking has been withdrawn.

·        Lorry park Titchfield Road P/23/1439/DA: the appeal against FBC’s enforcement notice to cease this unapproved use is currently the subject of an appeal ‘on the papers’ (ie no public hearings)

·        1200 houses and other developments Longfield Avenue P/20/0646/OA: the appeal on this development will take place as a public inquiry from 29 October for eight days.  If you are short of reading material, the documents can be found via this link https://moderngov.fareham.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=363&MId=4572&Ver=4

Scams

The usual range of scams continues to appear.  One quite plausible one is for a UK government living allowance, or Energy Support Scheme, for which you might allegedly be eligible, urging you to update your information in the link in order to claim it.  Don’t.   Another convincing one is a Penalty Charge Notice, usually for a time and location when you were somewhere entirely different.  As set out in our 14 Sept Update, no local authority issues a PCN by text.   We then have the usual list of offenders: Netflix re unsuccessful payment; Premier Inn offer of luxury pillows; AA emergency kit; Asda survey; virus detected by Mcafee; Mr Q Casino (?); you have reached your storage limit, just click here….

Hampshire County Council Cabinet meeting decisions 14 October 2024

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Update on Crofton Manor

Below is the message circulated by Executive Member Cllr Burton on 5 August: