Introduction
Labour supports the Welborne development. We believe that this new community will supply much needed housing to reduce the housing waiting list and should allow our young people to be able to still live and work in the area. Without it our children and grandchildren will be forced away from Fareham to seek affordable housing.
This development should have eased pressure on the few green open spaces and strategic gaps within the borough. Although much development has already taken place in these areas, we still believe that Welborne should be the prime development area in Fareham Borough to protect the remaining green spaces. We are disappointed that the developers have reduced the number of homes from the original 7500 to 6000. This will dramatically affect the remaining open spaces in Fareham Borough.
Housing
It is our strongly held view that the provision for affordable housing proposed is inadequate. We believe that a mix of both affordable and social housing is necessary which should equate to 50% of the overall development of which 30% should be allocated for rent. Such housing must include a high proportion of shared ownership, housing association, council and co-operative ownership. These properties should be mixed throughout the development. A key requirement is that there is long-term security of tenure for all residents. Labour believes that the increase in the proportion of affordable / social housing is needed to help alleviate the housing waiting list which is currently too long. Our proposed amendment to the plan will allow enough housing to help low and medium income families get good housing and still give provision for those who aspire to more expensive / larger housing.
Schools
We are supportive of the proposition of an all-through school, enabling the earliest possible development of secondary school places within Welborne. It is desirable that provision of school places within Welborne is made as early as possible such that a culture of travelling does not become embedded, consistent with the policy objectives of self-containment and minimising the traffic impact on adjacent communities.
We would encourage the adoption of space for nursery/per-school places near the primary schools, such that parents and children requirement to travel is minimised. We also expect that space should be allocated for Nursery provision within neighbourhood centres.
As this development is a new community, we will support these schools as local authority schools. Fareham Labour will oppose any move to introduce a Free School within Welborne.
Health Hub
Labour is deeply concerned that the designated ‘Health Centre / Hub’ does not have provision for a GP’s surgery. We believe this goes against Welborne being a self-contained community with adequate infrastructure. We urge Fareham Borough Council to put pressure on the local Clinical Commissioning Groups to ensure a GP’s surgery and extend provision in the Community Hospital at Sarisbury and the QA Hospital.
We would consider a true health hub to contain a GP’s surgery and an NHS dental practice.
We support the provision of an affordable care home. Although this provision should be counted separately from the overall number of dwellings.
Employment
We support the provision of the proposed area allocated for employment with the inclusion of reasonably sized ‘anchor’ employers to provide job opportunities for residents of the Welborne development. It is also desirable that employment opportunities within the Welborne development covers a range of skills at a range of levels, consistent with the desire to maximise the self-contained nature of the development and minimise commuting to nearby population centres. We note the number of jobs is expected to exceed 5700. Although the number of ‘full-time equivalent’ jobs are unknown we urge and will campaign for all employers to be Living Wage Employers. This would put Welborne at the forefront of a new economic plan for Fareham, providing a model for decent employment for the modern age.
Transport
We note the planned alterations to the road network, including substantial modifications to the M27 junction 10. We remain concerned about the potential impact of Welborne on traffic in Fareham. In order to limit the adverse impact, we support the introduction of the Rapid Transport System and urge its implementation at the earliest stage. Further consideration should be given to the proposed route through the North Hill area which we believe could add to the existing congestion.
Labour supports the provision of a railway station at Welborne. It is unclear from the plan details of car parking for the station. We believe clarification is required.
It is important that both the Rapid Transport System and rail network timetables are linked to provided easy of transport.
We welcome the inclusion of cycle routes, as this has been a campaign issue for Fareham Labour over a number of years.